


Escaping a Broken System

by CrownedinIvy



Series: Broken System of Auradon [2]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), Disney - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2020-11-23 05:22:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 21
Words: 30,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20886803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrownedinIvy/pseuds/CrownedinIvy
Summary: Sequel to Creating a Broken System. Rewrite of Descendants and Legends of King Arthur.Mal may be on her way to be Queen of the Isle, but the Enchantress always had much bigger plans for the Faerie-demigod whose birth she orchestrated. Hades simply wanted to be off the Isle so he could be with his wife and save his daughter.Evie was trained by her mother to be the perfect wife, but the Horned King needed his daughter to be the most talented witch of her generation.Jay was a mistake as far as Jafar was concerned, but a treasure to his Aunt and Uncle. Unfortunately no one was sure what would happen to a genie who'd been denied magic since birth would survive.Carlos was..... well Carlos was almost certain that his mother never wanted him, but was happy to have a servant. Thankfully, he was vital to the Isle so mostly he got left alone.





	1. Ain't It A Fine Life

“Yo, that’s my knife,” shouted out an 11 year old Hun boy, that Mal didn’t recognize. He must have been new, but Mal made a note of him. He either needed to be taught to shut up or maybe made a lieutenant to one of the lower Hun kids leaders. 

“Go steal another,” Jade cackled as she darted around the corner. Though Mal, could no longer see Arabian thief princess, she was certain the girl went through the window and up to the second floor classroom that served as the 4th/5th grade. 

“Hey Look Evie made cookies, too!” Dizzy’s shriek made Mal whip her head around to see the 9 year old, the cousin of the only regular supply of food on the Isle jumping up and down around the Princess. And within seconds, every wide-eyed waif in the hallway swarmed them; which in all honesty, not something Mal was inclined to outsider her own head, was nearly every kid in school 

“I thought I’d surprise Mother,” Evie answered one of the Shmee twins who asked why she’d made cookies. 

“As if she’d notice,” Harry Hook cut her off while somehow shoving three cookies in his mouth and lifting the twins above the crowd to reach Evie. 

“WHO ASKED YOU!?” came the onnery roar of 90 children in defense of their princess. Jay smacked Hook cross the back of the head, but it was meant playfully. Had it not been, Harry’d have dropped the twins and that most definitely would have been enough to start another turf war with Uma’s crew or worse, Harriet’s.

“From minor’s hallows to the water,” Carlos was talking to a younger girl, Mal recognized as a one of the hunting lodge’s children. She’d obviously just been kicked out, given that she was in the school building. Gaston enforced illiteracy with a vengeance in his territory. Which was hilarious given the other villains living in the lodge held their knowledge and skin tone above everyone else. 

“It’s easy pickings guaranteed,” Carlos finished and was immediately joined by Ginny Gothel in giving the new girl advice for living rough.

“Try every con or trick or barter. Whatever else you need to eat,” the girl whose mother/captor impressed upon the new girl. Mal decided she’d check up on her later, after she got a report from Carlos. 

“Its a crooked game we’re playing,” said one of the pirate girls (most of the boys didn’t go to school, much to the disappointment of Mal and Harriet) to De Chantall, Frollo’s adopted daughter. Mal took a few steps closer 

“One we risk to lose, as long as you sucka’s keep on prayin.”

“Guess you ain’t heard the news,” retorted the Catholic girl and the only real sense of morality on the Isle as far as Mal was concerned. De Chantal, originally named Francisca, shocked everyone by claiming her father’s religion whilst simultaneously rejecting everything he claimed made up the religion. Plenty of the groups on the Isle had a code, but Faustina’s was the closest to kindness that the Isle would allow and somehow she ran a hostile for anyone in need of a few days relief under Frollo’s nose in the old church basement. 

Mal walked away, smirking gently. She knew of three hairbrained schemes, De Chantal had in the works, including one that involved getting fresh bread for the Isle residents on a more regular basis. Mal had approved the project and had coordinated with De Chantal, Tony Tremaine, Carlos, and Gil. Crazy, maybe, but if anyone could pull off such insanity it would be De Chantal. 

“Ain”t it fine life, carrying Hook’s banner through it all,” warbled Harriet’s first mate as she swagger into the hall from dock side doors, followed by three sulking young boys, who clearly had been trying to play hooky. Mal thought the last phrase to herself and suppressed a giggle at her pun. The boys to their credit took up the tune as the slunk toward their respective class rooms. 

“A mighty fine life

Playing crooks and banter 

Tough and Tall

If the bell rings 

We still go where we wishes

We’s as free as fishes

Yeah, like ones in a bowl”

And with that Mal made her way to her own classroom knowing that any stragglers would be hustled out into the yard for the rest of the morning. Gothel did not tolerate lateness, or mumbling, or basically any of the behavior she tended to induce in children. Ginny was tough as knives and more terrifying than a rogue dragon in Mal’s personal opinion. 

“It takes a smile that sweet as summer.The kind that all those heroes dread,” said Asad, one of the more intimidating Arabian boys who ran with Jay in the Aragrabah quarter. The boy was the only thief to actually have had his hand cut off for stealing, as their religious laws dictated. Mal had questioned Jay at length after that incident, concerned for the thief’s safety with his Aunt Nasira and her husband, Cassim. Jay assured her that he was not in any danger and that Asad had gotten what was coming to him. Apparently the boy had stolen from the widows’ fund Cassim had set up for the wives of his men and even Mal understood the wrongness of that particular action. 

“It takes street rat like your brother,” Uma said from across the room, pointing at Jay, “Whose also blind, mute, and-”

“You’re dead,” Mal yelled and attacked the would be pirate. Uma slashed across Mal’s face with her 2 inch nails. Mal grabbed Uma’s hair wrestling her down breaking one of the desks. 

Kids came pouring into the classroom to watch the ensuing battle, encircling the girls. Harriet took up the sailing song that had started earlier, to keep from summoning Gothel and the other teachers. 

“Summer stinks winter’s freezing,

When you’re trapped outdoors. 

Start out dreading and wheezing,

In between we’re poor.

Still it's a fine life,

Carrying the banner with me chums (so it's a fine life)

(Carrying the banner with me chums) a bunch of big shots

Tossin' out dem freebies to the bums (ya bunch of big shots, tossin' out a freebie)”

And with that final line, Mal pinned Uma. Holding the other girl’s braids and keeping her in place with a foot on her throat, Mal looked up and surveyed her kingdom. She needed to make an impression; threats would not,  _ could not, _ be tolerated or else the madness that claimed so many of their parents would take them too. So Mal took a deep breath and yanked hard on a single braid, til it ripped from the fallen girl’s head. Then she released the hold on Uma, and pulled her to her feet. 

Within seconds, Harry was caught the girl, he claimed his captain over his sister and hurried her out of the room. De Chantal followed, pausing to nod toward Mal, but neither questioned if that was her asking for permission. The answer didn’t bear thinking about. Mal’s heart couldn’t take punishing another person today. The crowd dispersed quickly as Ginny rang the warning/school bell. And as she took her seat the next few bars of the song played in her mind 

“Hey, what’s with the hold up

Waiting is for pansies

Or for friends of fancies

Theives’s corner to Mercenary

**Ain’t it a fine life.”**


	2. Children of the Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben discovers something horrible about the Isle of the Lost and decides to do something about it. Also your questions about Jay will be answered, if you look closely.

Chin Min was possibly the most intimidating looking woman Ben had ever met and he’d met Fa Mulan and Esmarelda at the same time. Somehow though this tiny public health official who still retained her medical practice scared him more. Getting a meeting with her had been nearly impossible, which had surprised Ben a bit. Every other official within the city’s limit had been thrilled to meant with the soon-to be Crown Prince and ruler. 

“You have one hour of my time your highness,” Dr. Chin said, sitting behind her desk, “and only because your father threatened to cut my funding if I refused you again.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ben said a little startled. His father hadn’t mentioned that. “I was under the impression that you were an employee of the crown and as such your job was to serve.”

“I’m a doctor first, your highness. My job--my calling- is to heal the injured and sick and do my best to to prevent injury and illness where-ever I can. And as such I hate all those who would stand in my way.” She said sharply, opening one of the file drawers so forcefully that the whole desk shook. 

“And until now the crown has been one of those people.”

Ben sat up a little more and leaned forward. This sounded like she might have some actual information for him that she was willing to share. Over half the officials Ben had spoken to had alluded to some sort of distasteful part of his father’s policy, but no one was willing to speak out against him. It’s not my place to question the crown, had quickly become Ben’s most hated phrase when meeting with people. He needed people to help him be the best ruler possible, not an army of yes-men and women who agreed with him blindly. 

“Dr. Chin, I am not my father. I am still subject to his rule as high king, but I am willing to hear criticism against him. Can you tell me what exactly your problem was with his policies?” Ben finally paused to catch his breath now that he’d made crystal clear that he would be willing to listen. 

Dr. Chin smiled and, keeping in line with her personality up through this point, it was truly terrifying. She pulled out a stack of files and dropped them in front of Ben. He pulled the stack a little closer and read the top title, Isle of the Lost: Pediatric patients. 

“This, this can’t be right,” Ben said. “There are no children on the Isle of the Lost. All the villains who were sent were all well above the age of majority for both their countries of origin and the age of participation for the United States of Auradon.”

“Do I need to give the Talk, your highness?” asked Dr. Chin with a sigh. Ben turned bright red and began stuttering. Until Dr. Chin had mercy on the young man and continued. 

“Prince Benjamin, your father locked up a bunch of adults with no form of work, entertainment, or birth control. Children are a natural consquence of sex which was really the only source of distraction on the Isle.”

“Okay,” said Ben, “okay. So what do they need? Vaccinations? Education? Food?” Ben asked trying hard not to hyperventilate. The Isle of the Lost had never sat right with Ben; the conditions were substandard and the supply shipments were infrequent. Plus, Ben had been dreaming of a place that could have been the Isle of the Lost. Well, of a girl in a place that could have been the Isle of the Lost.

“Yes, to all of that but they also really need something else as well. Most of their parents are not great people and to make matters worse a lot of them have magic. Magical suppression has serious consequences, as I’m sure you know,” said Dr. Chin.

While neither of Ben’s parents had magic he knew enough of his classmates and subjects did and had been informed of the dire consequences for magic being suppressed. Jane done it back in freshman year and nearly died. She also blew up the dorms so she would have taken half the population of of Auradon’s ruling class. Ben didn’t want to imagine what would happen with so many suppressed magic users.

“How are they not all dead?” he asked horrified.

“The barrier, your highness. I’ve seen injuries and illnesses that should have killed people instantly when I go over there to offer my services. I can’t be certain because there is no precedent for anything like it. That’s not to say there aren’t health issues resulting from it. An arabian boy I see every time whose been suffering from magical induced Stargardt’s disease and a half faery seems to be developing with a psychological illness that manifests in episodes of disassociation and intense emotion. Usually I’d call it bipolar disorder or a personality disorder but it fits best with a magical illness documented in Auroria’s forest faeries who’ve been de-winged.” Dr. Chin answered, taking back the files and flipping through them as she spoke. 

“I’m sorry, Doctor, but I’m not familiar with Stargardt’s disease,” Ben said. He was shocked with the idea that not only did the Isle serve as a life sentence. It served as an eternal prison with no possible escape, even in death. 

“It’s a muscular dystrophy disease that causes blindness.”

“He’s blind!?! On the Isle of Lost!?! With those people!?!” Ben shouted, nearly growling in rage. 

“Not yet, but he will be. In a year or two. He lives with his aunt and uncle and his younger cousin. Mother was a Lady of the Night and the father is Jafar. I also have almost a hundred cases of child abuse that I can report. Would you like a list?” Dr. Chin asked. She seemed to be relieved and anticipating some long needed action by the crown.

Ben took a deep breath and began running through possible actions he could take. The most practical would be get some kind of permanent clinic and school set up on the Isle, but that would take months to organize and fund, not counting the time it would take to recruit staff for such a venture. The quickest solution would be to get the kids off the Isle, but Ben didn’t want to imagine the political backlash and--

“How many children are we talking about exactly? Can you give me a number?” Ben asked.

“I don’t have an exact number of children on the Isle, but I can tell you how many I’ve treated over the last ten years. 212.” Dr. Chin answered. Ben covered his face with his hands. 212 lives who’d probably suffered irreversible damage from his father’s actions or his inactions depending on one’s point of view. And there was absolutely no way Ben could move 212 people in a short period of time, let alone 212 children. Custody , parental rights termination, hell even citizenship since none except possibly Gaston and the enchantress were native to his territory. 

“Highest priority? Who needs out now?” Ben asked trying to remain in control of his breathing and reaction.

“The Arabian boy, Jay, the Faery girl, who goes by Mal, the Evil Queen and-try not to be sick-the Horned King’s daughter, Evie. And Carlos De Vil. They’re all teenagers now, Jay the eldest and the only one I have a birthday. I don’t actually have a definitive age for Carlos,” Dr. Chin answered without any hesitation. 

“Okay the first three make sense to me,” Ben answered as he started writing out a plan of action to get the children moved. “But De Vil? I was under the impression that Cruella was a minor villain with no magical abilities.”

Doctor Chin nodded, but she hesitated before speaking. She was a good doctor, and that meant not giving out medical information to people who weren’t her patients, particularly sensitive information. 

“I’m not able to give you much more information than I already have about conditions at this point, your highness. Especially since this information is not about Carlos; Carlos does not know who his father is. And he displays symptoms of muscular dystrophy caused by magical suppression, not to mention all the abuse he’s suffered from his mother.” 

Ben nodded. So he had a tentative plan and list of villain kids to work with. He had to clear transport from the Isle, get them enrolled in school, find some kind of medical practitioner to treat them, and get some sort of custodial agreement with their parents’ nations of origin. 

Worse though, Ben remember had to have dinner with his parents tonight. Something was going to get broken or set on fire tonight. Hopefully it was something other than whatever book his mother was currently reading.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Chin is the daughter of everyone's favorite character in Mulan! lol
> 
> So I like the idea that magic is intrinsically tied to the health of the person holding it and the idea that the barrier keeps people from dying, but I am adding a small caveat to this which you'll see in the next chapter. 
> 
> Stargardt's disease is a real condition that affects real people; this is the magical equivalent, but its going to follow the same pattern of the actual disease. 
> 
> Also yes I fudged Carlos's parentage, but I wasn't going to let him be the only one without a magical parent of the VK's


	3. Honor Among Theives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We hear from Jay and get a glimpse at his day to day life. Also Hades has his power back (warning violence of graphic nature)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author note: So there have been questions about Dr. Chin and for some reason AO3 is not letting me reply. Dr. Chin is a public health official for the city-state of Auradon, which is a small nation in the United States of Auradon. Ben was given the city-state to govern on his 16th birthday to teach him how to be responsible; the disney royal equivalent of getting an after-school job to learn about becoming an adult. Auradon (the city-state) also operates the Isle of the Lost for the US of Auradon, so Dr. Chin goes over once a month to do a health survey. Upon realizing that there was no healthcare on the Isle, Chin turned the survey trips into mission trips. 
> 
> Also first hint on who Carlos’s dad is: He is a French villain in the Disney cannon.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay’s day began like everyday began; with a bang and a blur. Well it wasn’t just the beginning of a day that’s a blur anymore. In fact, Jay couldn’t remember when he’d last a day of clear vision. And the doctor offered only grim news every time Cassim drug him to her pop-up clinic. 

This particular morning’s bang was caused by Jade, his little cousin, attempting to help his aunt in the kitchen. Jay rolled out of his hammock and flipped down from the loft to the ground floor. His uncle waved him over to the table where he was reading the old copy of the Songs of the Desert Nights. Jay smelled the bitter coffee, but couldn’t quite make out where it was on the table. He could see the table, but there was a huge black spot currently blocking his view of what was on the table.. 

“Two hand lengths from the table’s edge, three from my dominant hand,” Cassim said, not looking up from his book. Jay nodded and picked up the carafe and poured it into the chipped mug that Jade handed him. He tried to push aside the embarrassment that seemed to be constant in his life. For a fantastic thief, Jay was very much becoming dependant on his family for basic tasks. 

“You’re not going to school today, either of you,” Cassim said finally setting down his book. “Nasira and I already discussed it” 

Jay turned toward his Aunt who finally sat down at the table with disbelief in his eyes. Nasira was a huge advocate for letting the Arabian Thieves attend the school with the general population of the prison for as long as they wanted. Most of the other theives’ pulled their children out of school once they hit puberty; perferring to limit the temptations and dangers of the opposite sex by schooling them at home. 

“There is a very good reason for this,” Nasira defended herself from the shocked looks of her daughter and nephew. “Jay, your father came to see Cassim yesterday, about you.”

“Uncle Jafar came over?” Jade asked while Jay spat out his coffee. The last time his father had come to see the family, he’d spent half the time screaming at Iago and the other half describing his life in the palace before the genie. More importantly, the last time Jafar had come to see them, Jay had been able to see more. Since then, Jay’s field of vision depth perception, and ability to handle bright lights had gone down drastically, in spite of Jay’s best efforts. 

“Do you think?” Jay hesitated. He loved his father, he thought, but Jay’s greatest fear was that one day his father would discover his lack of vision and kill him or that Jafar would try to take him away from Cassim and Nasira. Few places on the Isle of the Lost felt safe; none felt safer to Jay than the small underground home of his Aunt and Uncle. 

Cassim turned toward his wife and took a deep breath. Nasira took his hand. 

“Jafar has some exciting news for you, Jay. It’s a great opportunity and we want you to accept for now,” Nasira said firmly. “Now get out go see your friends, get into trouble, whatever you do for fun.”

Jay nodded and swallowed the rest of his coffee in one gulp. He walked back to the area that had been curtained off for privacy and changed his pants. Jay tucked his hair up under his cap and was throwing on his vest, when Cassim walked pulled back the curtain to let himself in. 

“Hey,” Jay said , but Cassim scoffed. 

“Hey yourself boy, I dressed you since you were born. I just wanted to make sure you took your knife with you today.”’

Jay took the knife from the wall without bothering to look. He knew where it was by memory, hanging just below his Uncle’s. Cassim had given Jay the knife for his fifteenth birthday; the day he would have been considered a man in another place, the day that Cassim said marked the beginning of the journey of adulthood. 

Jay tied the knife to his belt then turned to his Uncle. Cassim pulled him into a hug and buried his face into Jay’s head. Jay was startled but returned the hug without hesitation. 

“You have truly earned the title of Prince of Thieves and you can never lose that. Not even if there comes a day where you can’t see the world around you. And I am so proud of you I could burst.”

Jay pulled away and felt a letter in pocket that Cassim had put there during the hug. Jay quirked his eyebrow, but Cassim offered no explanation. So Jay headed out, mussing Jade’s half done hair as he ran out into the murky air of the Isle of the Lost.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hades was having a day. It’d been a long time since he’d dared go to see his daughter, but he knew that if Amora was correct soon his little flame would be leaving the Isle for her prince. And he needed to know when she’d leave; He needed to know so that he could give her his ember, so that eventually she’d understand.

“Congratulations,” came a voice from the willow tree. “You’ve finally found me.”

Amora, the Enchantress, slid down from her perch in the tree and faced the god of the dead. Hades took a moment to view the being that ruined his life. She looked worn, her hair braided, but matted. Her dress was torn, faded, and stained with what appeared to be blood. 

“When is my daughter getting out of here, hag?” Hades spat as he took two steps forward closing the space between them. 

“Flattery will get you everywhere, Hades. And if I’m not mistaken, she’s leaving right now. Or have you grown so numb that you can’t even feel the barrier being opened?” Amora sneered in reply.

But then Hades felt it, the tiniest bit of magic in the air and he seized it with all his might. Instantly, Amora burst into blue flames, Hades grabbed her shoulders to keep her up right as the fire consumed her. She screamed and thrashed, but Hades was a mountain. 

“Ya know, I understand why you did it. Lying to me, torturing me with a child I couldn’t touch, forcing me to betray my wife with your little potion. I understand, hell if you’d have done it to anyone other than me, I’d even respect it.” Hades growled as the flames went out leaving the ancient a burnt husk. 

“When push comes to shove, you do what ya gotta do. I had to do this, but don’t worry; if you’re anything like dear old dad, you’ll regenerate in, oh a century or two. Hopefully I’ll have had enough time to simmer down and Seph will have forgiven me the indiscretion with Maleficent. Otherwise we’ll just have to do this again, won’t we?”

With that Hades threw the remnants of the enchantress against the willow tree and stormed off to his mine. Once inside he grabbed the last remaining bottle of alcohol and drained half in one pull. Then he muttered to whatever fates or forces that were listening to keep his little girl safe in the great wide world of the most dangerous people: heroes. 


	4. I Don't Believe in Faeries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we see the world from Carlos's point of view and the entrance to Auradon does not go according to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carlos's father hint #2: One of the major characters in the movie he's present in is a faerie.

Carlos was scared, but that wasn’t unusual. Carlos found he was always some level of scared, ranging from slightly nervous about whether or not he’ll get to eat to full blown terrified for his life because of his mother, Gothel, heck, Mal on a bad day. Right now he was firmly in the middle of said range. A few seconds ago, he’d been at the top; thinking that he and the others were going to fall to their death before the realization that there was a magic.

Ironically, the idea that there was magic here, was part of what was scaring him now. Mal knew her gang’s strengths and weaknesses and Carlos’s main contribution was with knowledge. So she’d made him read every book on the Isle a few times over by the time she’d let him attend classes without an escort from Jay, or JR, or once Evie. So he knew that there would be all kinds of consequences for Mal, Jay, and Evie coming into contact for the first time.

He was even more afraid that something might happen to him. Dr. Chin said he was suffering from magic loss when Jay had taken him to see her. That had been almost more stress than he could handle; after that appointment Jay had tattled to Mal and the two had decided that Carlos wasn’t allowed to go back home to Hells Hall anymore. 

“Monochrome!” Mal was snapping in his face when Carlos refocused on reality. “Good, you’re with us. Status report everyone”

“My head hurts and everything is blurry.” Jay reported looking over Mal’s shoulder and refusing to make any sort of eye contact. 

“I have a migraine is starting and I’m getting kind of nauseous,” Evie answered as she reapplied blush in a vain attempt to hide the pale that was over taking her face. This was not good. 

“I’m, uh, I , um, having trouble focusing and I’m twitchy.” Carlos answered trying very hard to speak clearly and not stutter. Usually the gang was patient with him when he got like this, but with everyone hurting he wouldn’t blame them. 

Mal took a deep breath and muttered something quietly for a few seconds, then took another deep breath before speaking. 

“My chest hurts,” she admitted, but the edge to her voice could cut steal. “We aren’t at the top of our game and don’t know what we’re walking into. Top priority is functioning, we’ll worry about the wand later. So we need coffee for Evie, sunglasses for Jay, and a quiet place for Carlos to tinker with something.”

Mal rattled this off as she curled in on herself, clutching at her chest in pain. Evie looked at Carlos and pursed her lips with worry. Jay nodded but there was a slight flush to his cheeks; Carlos was sure if that was from the strain of trying to see or if it was from the embarrassment of needing help. 

“Mal!” Evie shrieked once again pulling Carlos’s attention back to their leader. Mal had completely slumped over. Jay scrambled in the tight space to roll Mal on her back and started feeling around her neck for a pulse. 

“Her lips are greyish,” Carlos offered and he started the stop-watch function on his watch. “She’s not getting any air. Evie tilt her head back, close her nose and two breaths into her mouth. Like we did for Dizzy last summer.”

Evie did as he said, while Jay drew his knife and cut a slit down the front of Mal’s vest and shirt. He quickly felt around and positioned his hands right on Mal’s sternum. 

“Jay start compressions, count as you go.” Carlos called out as soon as Evie pulled away from Mal’s face and began gulping air. 

Jay reached 25 and Carlos signaled Evie to get ready. At 30 Evie breathed for Mal twice, the Jay immediately went back to chest compressions. Then the cycle continued. Once, twice, three times. Evie started crying, and Jay started shaking but Carlos didn’t call for a stop, he tagged Evie for the next round and forced air into Mal’s leaden lungs and Jay kept pushing. None of the VK’s notice the limo had stopped. 

“Oh my goodness!” a shrill voice broke through, but Carlos continued to ignore it focussing on his friend. “They doing some weird sex thing!” 

“No, they’re not,” came a male voice, then Carlos became aware of another guy shuffling in next to him. “Tag me in me on the next round.”

“Switch!” Jay gasped as he practically jumped back and Carlos gave Mal another two breaths. The new guy then began compressions and Carlos briefly glances at him. He looked a little strange, no dirt on him or any of his clothes. Nothing he wore looked torn and it all seemed to fit him perfectly.

Carlos glanced at his watch to check the time. Five minutes 10 seconds read the display in blinking red neon. Carlos bit his lip; Mal had set the rule that they could only go for 7 minutes before they stopped and went through the person’s pockets. Not that they’d ever got to seven minutes before, but it was getting close. Closer than they’d ever gotten. Then Mal moved. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, not sorry. Next chapter will be up on Saturday.


	5. First Impressions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apparently ambulances with sirens were a bad idea.

Pain, was the first thing Mal became aware of upon regaining consciousness. Her head was pounding, her chest was sore, and she was almost certain that she'd broken one or two of her ribs. Eyes still shut, Mal attempted to roll onto her side so that she could get up, but someone grabbed her shoulders. 

“Whoa, slow down. You’re okay, no need to try to get up, yet. Ambulance is on the way,” a said voice that Mal didn’t recognize. 

Mal opened her eyes and saw a guy leaning over her. He startled a little, but held firm in his position. The boy had blonde hair and a soft face, no scars or stress lines. He was in a suit, like the one Faciler would wear only nicer. But something was odd. 

“Why is everything green?” Mal asked. 

“Um, Mal?” Evie answered from somewhere behind Mal’s head. “Your eyes are doing the glowing-green fire-thing. Maybe stop?”

That confused Mal, normally it took a lot of effort to the tiny sliver of magic the barrier couldn’t steal of the innate nature of a faerie or a demigod.Not that Mal tended to acknowledge that part of herself. Then she remembered. 

“We ‘re not on the Isle,” she said slowly, keeping her eyes down so as not to invade the mind or will of whoever was in front of her. Not the best way to make a first impression, her mother had always said; save that for when the lesser beings offended you. 

“There’s so much magic, I can’t stop.”

“Alright Dearie,” said a light voice, coming from behind the guy. “Just repeat after me, _ Fhathast an solas dannsa a-staigh _ ”

Though, Mal had never heard that language before, she recognized the tongue of the fey that inhabit Evie’s kingdom. And the words felt so right as she slowly repeated what the older magic user said. As she did, Mal felt the fire settle in her stomach, warming her chest and easing the pain. She looked up at the boy and realized she recognized him.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Well that was not how I was hoping introductions would go,” Ben said as he helped Mal up to a sitting position at car’s door. “An ambulance is on its way and should be here any minute.”

“What’s an ambulance?” asked the boy, Ben assumed to be Jay from his Agrabah heritage without any hint of curiosity in his voice. Though, boy may not have been the best description based on the way he carried himself. 

“As much as I usually don’t do this kind of thing,” Mal rasped “I really need to see a doctor or healer, or whatever you heroes have.”

Ben gasped for two reasons. One, how could these kids not know what an ambulance was and two: Mal looked very familiar now that she was sitting up and in better light. She was the girl in his dreams, the one who told him of horrible things and wonderful futures. 

“An ambulance is a special car that takes people to a hospital, dears. There doctors and nurses are going to look you all over and see how you all are doing after such a….. Difficult journey,” Fairy Godmother said, though her voice cracked over the end of her sentence. 

“I’m so sorry,” Ben said. “I was planning on getting you all settle in your dorms before we went to see Dr. Chin tomorrow.”

Then came the sirens and with it disaster. Evie screamed and promptly dropped in a dead faint. Chad actually sprinted up and caught her before she hit the ground, in an act of heroism Ben hadn’t seen in his friend since they were kids. Mal’s whole body caught fire, burning her closes with green and blue flames as she whipped around trying to find the threat. Carlos curled into a ball and started shaking. Jay jumped, straight up into the air a good forty feet high, creating a dust cloud in his wake. 

Ben sighed, of course nothing could be easy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO sorry I forgot you're Carlos father's identity clue! I will also post it in the next chapter in case anyone misses it here: This character is known for his full beard


	6. Princess Gets Her Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little detour from the main story for the purpose of setting up character arches of the royals. Also as the song goes "Be careful making wishes in the dark"

Chad Charming was so not looking forward to this meeting the love of his life had called. Mainly because he knew she was going to plot out how to keep the future King of the United States of Auradon as her boyfriend and eventually her husband. Chad liked Ben; he was a good leader and would be a better ruler, but Chad also hated his oldest friend for stealing the heart of his beloved. 

“There you are Chad,” said Audrey, princess of Majorca, daughter of Princess Aurora and Prince Philip, as Chad entered the lounge where several other princes and princess and a few other members of the upper echelon had gathered. “You should have been here fifteen minutes ago.”

“Sorry, my lady,” Chad answered looking around the room to see who was there. Prince Seth was on the couch with Chad’s younger sister, Chrissy. Princess Jamie, daughter of Tiana and Naveen was sitting by the fireplace along with the future marquese Alana. Prince Aziz of Agrabah was leaning against the wall as far removed as he could get form the other royals. 

“Yeah, Audrey, lay off. He had to go wash off the filth from saving the Isle Princess,” Seth said, only to have Chrissy punch him in the shoulder. 

“Ugh, she’s not a princess,  _ Prince  _ Seth. I thought you of all people would know that,” Audrey grumbled in response and flopped down into that last armchair. 

“Actually, she is,” Jaime offered. “I checked when Ben announced who was coming. Princess Evie is set to claim her father’s kingdom upon his death or stepping down.”

“Who’s her father?” Chrissy asked. “I thought she was the daughter of the Evil Queen.”

“The records show that the Horned King is her father,” Jamie answered, making a face in disgust. Chad felt similarly. The Horned King was the face of many a campaign to tighten security of the Isle and everyone was scared of him; the idea of that thing procreating was disgusting. 

“No!” Audrey shouted. “We have to present a united front or those villains will destroy us! She’s not a princess, none of them are royalty and none of them have any right to speak to us.” 

“I’m with Audrey,” Chad said as soon as Audrey paused for a breath. “But I don’t see why we can’t take a little vengeance for our families, right?”

Chad looked over at the princess of Majorca and was relieved to see her smile. She liked his idea and it was a good idea. Princes were supposed to defend their families’ honor and playing with the villain kids could be fun or maybe useful. Chad needed someone new to do his homework and the Agrabian looked like he would be a good addition to the tourney team. 

“Fine, Chad, you can play with them. Seth stay away, if something bad happens we want to be sure that no one can blame you. Aziz, you can”

“No” the Arabian prince cut off Audrey. “I will do nothing. Did you see that guy’s knife?”

Chad remember briefly seeing a knife hanging from the Arabian’s waist. It was a beautiful knife, clearly dessert highlands in origin, and in immaculate condition. Taking into account the state of the other villain kids’s clothes and hygiene the knife must have been cared for very carefully. 

“Yeah, I saw the knife.” Chad answered. “Is it significant in your culture or to you personally, Az?”

“Both. That knife signifies that person carrying it is a member of an elite group of thieves. Legends refer to the forty thieves are the greatest of all time and while the group cycles through generations, their held in high esteem.”

“Sounds like another reason he should be sent back to the Isle,” Alana offered. She was Ben’s cousin- once removed, and rarely ever agreed his him. Chad privately thought she just wanted him out of the way so she could become queen. 

“NO! You’re wrong, very wrong!” Aziz practically shouted which was very odd given his usually repressed demeanor, Chad thought. “The thieves were supposed to act as a check and balance system for the wealthy and the government. If Jay, and yes that is his standardized name, then he needs to be sent to Agrabah immediately, so that he may resume his work.”

“Wow, Az, chill,” Chad responded to prevent Audrey from starting what would surely become an international incident with the Arabian prince. 

“I will not “chill” Chad and as I am clearly no longer welcome, I must bid you goodbye” Aziz responded in his more strong silent type way. Audrey stood up and Chad cringed. 

“You also should go clean out your tourney locker, Aziz, and you won’t be welcome in the royal lounge any time soon,” Audrey said, her voice like steel. “If you’re not with us; then you’re against us. And I really wish you weren’t against us.” 

“Better be careful, Princess, making wishes like that.” Aziz replied. “Never know how they’ll be granted.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so I'm back on schedule for a Sunday and Friday update. Hope you all survived the delay; I had a patient suffer a major set back that kind of disrupted my life. 
> 
> So recap: Carlos's father is a french villain, with a beard and appears in a movie with a faerie.   
You're new clue: His movie was release by Disney in the 1940's and two days ago a director was announced for a live action version.


	7. Every Rose has it's Thorns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aurora meets Mal; of course neither of them knows who the other is. And an alliance is formed

Briar Rose was running and pushing the crash cart at the same time. It was never a good when someone called a code in the magical illness and injuries ward, assuming it was a valid call. In the three years that Briar had been working at Auradon’s only trauma one center, there’d been more false alarms than there had ever been back in Majorca. There were also a lot more patients than in Auradon, since there was more magic than in Majorca. King Stefan all but annihilated the magical population, leaving only the three faeries that had raised Briar Rose. 

“Cancel code blue,” the the static-y voice over the radio came. “ I repeat cancel code blue”

Briar Rose sighed as she slowed to a stop. Slowly, she turned the cart around and began the walk back to the storage area. Only to be paged back to the nurses’ station by a frantic sounding aide. Passing the cart on to a passing tech, Briar quickly went back to the nurses’ station to see what the problem was.

“Um, the purple haired fey that came in from the prep school is, uh, demanding to know about her “gang”?” The aid was practically cowering behind the clipboard she was holding. Briar resisted the urge to roll her eyes; an unfortunate trait she’d picked up from her daughter, now that Audrey was spending more time with her. 

Snatching the chart from the fearful aide Briar march over to the room only room on the ward that was labeled fire precautions. Ignoring the fire precaution PPE and grabbing the water pitcher from from a passing lunch cart, Briar knocked on the door twice and entered. 

Sitting on the bed was a young fey, she couldn’t even be a hundred yet, surrounded by colorful flames. She looked up from her arm where she’d been working to remove her IV line. Briar let out a gentle sigh and throw the water on flames temporarily dousing the young fey’s work.

“Hi my name is Briar Rose and I’ll be your nurse today, due to the cowardly nature of all the other nursing staff. I need you to tell me what you prefer to be called and to stop messing with the IV line or else you’ll have to wear mittens for your own safety,” Briar said as she began to go through a basic visual assessment. 

The fey was a girl or presenting as a girl, Briar wasn’t certain which kind of fey this was. She was definitely young, appearing to be about Audrey’s age, though, her eyes said she was much older than she looked. Her hair was a violent shade of purple and clearly hadn’t been brushed in the last few days. She was skinny too; her collarbone and sternum visible with the hospital gown hanging off her shoulder. 

“Why? Everyone else keeps calling me Jane,” the fey said bitterly. 

“Yes, officially any magical being that comes in is listed as John or Jane Doe. In order to protect him or her or it or them, I hate pronouns, anyways to keep them from being taken advantage of by any of the staff or visitors,” Briar answered as she silently plotted sending all of the staff in the ward back to diversity training for this. She checked the chart and realized that none of the care the fey needed had been provided since she came out of the coma she’d been in yesterday. 

Turning back to look at the bed, Briar saw that the fey had pulled herself up, using the IV pole for leverage, and was standing. Taking a deep breath, Briar look straight into the girls eyes. The green glow that overlook Briar’s vision was eerily familiar. Briar kept her mind clear, nudging the fey to look at her intentions and the source of anger. Soon enough the green disappeared and the girl, and she was a girl--empathic connections went two ways-- looked exhausted, but somehow healthier than moments before.

“Mal, my friends call me, Mal,” she with just a tinge of vulnerability in her voice. 

“Well Mal, why don’t we get some work done and you tell me who your friends are and I can go check on them,” Briar offered with a smile. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mal wasn’t sure that she had ever felt this good and according to the nurse, Briar Rose, things were even better outside of the hospital. There was actual running water and it was clear. She’d showered, sitting down on a chair, in clean water and had had new shampoo and something called conditioner and new soap. 

Briar had given her a bunch of new hair ties and Mal have been ecstatic to be able to plait her hair into a complicated braid, though she had tried to suppress that emotion. Glee did not belong on a villainess’ face without the bodies of her enemies on a spike before her. Mal could practically hear her mother yelling those words in her mind in spite of herself. 

The nurse had also given Mal a brief update on the others. Basically it sounded like everyone was going to be fine once the initial shock of magic wore off. Evie and Jay both had headaches while Carlos was all but fine. At least that was Mal’s take away from Briar’s report on him. Apparently, Auradon had strong views on abuse, which Mal found a little hilarious given the general opinion on the Isle was that hitting your children was normal and even expected to a certain extent; though even on the Isle, Cruella was excessive.

A knock on her door frame torn Mal away from her internal musings. It was the good looking guy from yesterday. Looking at him now Mal had a better appreciation of just how good looking he was and felt the barest flush heat her face.She also realized where she’d seen him before. He was the boy in her dreams, the one the enchantress said was important, when Mal had visited the old hag on a dare the year before. 

“May I come in?” he asked with the slightest lilt to his voice. Mal nodded and pushed the button that let the bed tilt up so that she could sit facing him. 

“So I have to--

“I’d like to apologize--

Mal smiled a little as they had both began to speak at the same time. 

“You go first,” she offered, very generous given she could feel barely any magic on him.

“I wanted to apologize again for what happened the other day and actually introduce myself.So hi, I’m Ben, son of Adam and Belle, crown prince of Auradon,” He said with a open smile on his face and a substantial blush in his cheeks. 

“Wow, that’s a mouthful,” Mal answered smirking on the outside, panicking in her head. He was supposed to become her partner in conquering according to the enchantress. How was that going to happen exactly!?!

“Yeah. I just go by Ben when I’m not wearing the crushed velvet and golden nightmare,” he responded and Mal snorted. Okay maybe this guy was alright; he had a decent sense of humour. 

“If you want something more comfortable than a crown, I can ask Evie to get you some designs. My friends call me Mal,” she answered after a moment. Making sure to be careful how she phrased her name. Mal didn’t know her real name, only Hades did and he had refused to share it with anyone. Sometimes, Mal wished she knew, but other times had been truly grateful of her ignorance. Can’t be forced to give your name if you don’t know it.

“Are we friends then?” Ben asked jumping on the word. Interesting, Mal made a note of that. 

“Maybe someday. For now though I could use an ally more than a friend. And I never offer an alliance without something to offer,” Mal said, sliding into negotiation tactics from gang meetings back on the Isle. It wasn’t so different from Kingdoms in Auradon, so Mal figured it could work. 

“Well, if an alliance you want, perhaps we should discuss terms?” Ben replied in kind. 

“I’d like that. I’d like that very much.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carlos's father is >drumroll< Stromboli, whose name and as such whose ethnicity I completely forgot was different in the movie than in the book (Not that his name doesn't change there too). My deepest apologies to everyone who I unintentionally led astray. As to what exactly Stromboli's magic is you'll all find out soon enough. 
> 
> Hospital jargon: Ppe=personal protection equipment. Code Blue=Heart beat not detected. 
> 
> Next chapter we see what Ben thinks of his new alliance. See you Sunday, pretties


	8. Monsters wearing our Parents' faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben and Adam have a painful conversation.

Ben stormed into the palace and headed straight for his room. The servants and officials practically dove out of his way, dropping whatever they were doing, but Ben couldn’t bring himself to care. And that startled him more than a little; he always cared about the people and the palace and couldn’t ever remember walking through his home without stopping at least once to greet someone. 

But he was so upset and angry and tired, all at once and just couldn’t imagine talking to anyone without sharing his pain. So he marched to the one place where he always felt safe, the library. When he was little he’d sneak in with his mother and they’d read for hours on end. And when she was a lecture tour, Ben would carefully hide in the library at night so he could feel like she was still there. Once inside the library, Ben flung himself down onto a couch with so much force, he was surprised it didn’t break underneath him. 

The Isle was so much worse than Ben had been prepared to deal with. He’d purused the medical files that the hospital had scrambled to put together for the four villain kids from what Dr. Chin had and all the new information. Jay had the most complete file and was the only one with a complete set of vaccines on board. He also was going to be blind by age 18, given the rate his vision loss and the lack of instantaneous recovery that Chin had been hoping for. 

Evie had the next largest file though there was a huge gap from age 7 to 13. She also had most of her vaccines, missing a few that fell in that time period. Evie had been starved over what seemed to be random intervals, which according to her were of her mother’s choosing. She also suffered from serious headaches which left her with blurry vision and extremely sensitive to sounds, which the doctor said was because of her skull, well, Evie was possibly going to inherit her father’s family title. 

Carlos was the smallest file, but it was heartbreaking. Unlike Jay who’d had by all accounts a loving family and Evie who’d at least had the occasional escape to her father’s hovel for lessons, Carlos had no relief from his mother’s insanity. And that was probably what was most upsetting; Cruella wasn’t in her right mind and should have been receiving treatment somewhere, not letting her illness worsen on an Isle of villains. That didn’t excuse her in Ben’s mind, but he couldn’t blame her the way he could the Evil Queen or Jafar or Maleficent. 

And Maleficent was truly a villain. One of the first things Mal and he had discussed was her mother’s plan and suddenly the museum didn’t feel like such a good place for powerful magic weapons. The next had been the scars that lined up perfectly with wing placements for a Moorish Faerie on Mal’s back. Mal had demanded something in exchange for that explanation which, Ben had granted before listening to her demands. That was something he really couldn’t afford to do, but he’d needed to know for some reason. She’d simply informed him that neither Evie, nor herself would be forced to give up their respective artefacts. 

Ben knew he shouldn’t have pushed further, but he really needed some information about the children of the Isle. He needed numbers, basic outline of needs, and any possible way to get the kids supplies. And Mal had given him a breakdown of the Isle. 

She’d told him that there were probably as many as a thousand kids on the Isle, but certainly no fewer than seven hundred. She’d told him of what happened to the pirate boys and the girls who didn’t manage to escape the Lodge. Mal had talked of the gang wars that used to rampage the school and the tenuous peace she’d fought so hard to achieve. She told stories of the older daughters and sons of magical villains and how each was slowly succumbing to the illness they called magic madness. Mal had spoken of how the kids did everything to distance themselves from their parents who were most dangerous and of the twisted affection that kept them coming back. 

“Besides, where can we run? The barrier keeps us just as trapped as our parents,” Mal had answered with the sickliest smile on her face. And that was Ben’s limit and now here he was hiding. 

“Ben,” a large hand on his shoulder pulled Ben from his thoughts. Looking down on him with concern etched on his face was King Adam. “Are you alright, son?”

“No, no I’m not,” Ben answered and hoped that would be enough of an explanation for his father. 

“I know that facing evil for the first time is difficult, but you can’t let it get to you. Otherwise they win,” the Beastly King as Mal had called him with no hesitation. 

“See dad, that’s the thing. Evil lost and so many innocents paid for it.”


	9. The Place Where Dreams Go to Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> title taken from song by the Downtown Fiction.

Mal and the fraction of her gang, really those who made up her inner circle, were gathered in the boys’ room planning for the day. Their first day of school at Auradon Prep, and in the privacy of her heart, Mal was nervous.

“So one more time, what’s the plan for today?” She quizzed the others. 

“I will go to all my classes and I will sit in the front two rows. I have a pass for the prayer room, where I will most likely run into Prince Aziz, who I am having lunch with and will give you a full report in ‘remedial’ goodness,” Jay rattled off, messing with the sunglasses he’d swiped from the prince who’d caught Evie their first day off the Isle. Mal was ninety percent certain, Jay would be using his prayer pass to ditch at least once because of a headache rather than the religious obligation that he had had the pass issued for, but she would not be calling him on it, today anyways. 

“I will only introduce myself as the Princess of Annuvin and not talk about my mother at all costs. I will also be skipping history of literature, because its in the basement and we don’t know whether or not, I’ll turn skeletal. I also will be thanking Prince Chad when I see him,” Evie replied with a wicked smile that made Mal want to shake her head. She understood why Evie wanted a prince, it would help her secure her title and please her mother, but Mal really didn’t want to know about it. 

“I’m going to class and I will try to stay as close as possible to one of you. I will not draw attention to myself,” Carlos said. Mal nodded in approval, because she’d figured out a long time ago that Carlos responded best to positive feedback. It was weird, but didn’t cost Mal anything and taking care of her gang was first and foremost her job. And honestly, she was very worried about the rest of her gang back home.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BOOM! The whole street shook with the explosion and the old shack was instantly consumed by the flames. 

“Eat my hellfire, seawitch,” De Chantal shouted from behind old car door, she and Freddie were using as a fire shield. 

Uma and two other pirates came sprinting out of the build, clothes smoldering, but mostly, unharmed from Freddie could tell. She was pleased that Uma wasn’t too badly injured. Uma may have completely shunned her father and his other children, but Freddie still felt at least a little bit responsible for her. Not that she could let that stop her from pushing back Uma’s attempts to grab turf in Mal’s absence.

“Burn this, Frenchie!” yelled Harry Hook as he launched something into the air. It looked like snakes flew out of the box, but that didn’t make sense unless. 

“Eels,” Diego called from his perch on one of the old light posts, which sent Freddie and De Chantal scrambling to get away from the car door. The eels hit and electricity shot through the metal door into the ground.

Freddie sent back back a set of flash powder grenades with the sling she had borrowed from Yzma. De Chantal was readying another explosive, but it would take her at least another 2 minutes and Diego needed cover to get to another spot since he’d given away his position. Gunfire broken into Freddie’s thoughts and brought both gangs to a grinding halt. 

JR, Gaston’s eldest son, was standing in the middle of the street along with one of his younger brothers. The younger Gaston, went by the name and tended to hang around Uma, was something of an oddity among the Isle people. De Chantal called him a Changeling, but Mal was certain there was no faerie magic affecting him. She’d checked him three times in exchange for a steady supply of tiger meat. In spite of this, Gil was something of an odd duck and all the gangs had declared him persona contega; a protected person. 

There were a few other on the Isle that fell into the category; one of the minion kids, Yen Sid, the only decent teacher, and Tony Tremaine after his leg had had to be cut off in the last earthquake. These people were allowed to walk anywhere on the Isle and every gang member was supposed to leave them alone or help them if asked. Tony because he was vital to the survival of the Isle, Yen Sid similarly so. The minion kid was a halfing; his father one of the goblins and no one could risk angering the goblins. They controlled all the resources Auradon sent over. 

“Enough,” JR growled. “Freddie, De Chantal, I know that they’re trying to take Mal’s turf, your turf, but you have to let them.”

“Are you insane, chère? The system works because of how Mal broke up the Isle and everyone follows the code. We can’t just give them the turf; we got littles to feed and it’s going to be a bad winter,” De Chantal answered, glancing to Freddie out of the corner of her eye. 

Freddie scanned the scene. Diego was off the post and up another building getting a nest set. Uma’s coat was still on fire thrown between the three pirates and the VK’s position. JR and Gil were off to one side, but were the center of attention. 

“You can’t hold the turf, then you don’t deserve the turf,” Uma spat with as much venom as the vipers that filled the waters around the docks. Harry knocked against Uma’s shoulder then leaned in to whisper in her ear. Uma nodded, then asked JR.

“What’s your proposal?” De Chantal demnaded.

“Vk’s turf gets cut by 30%. Uma’s splinter gang would get 20% and the other ten gets added to no man’s land, so that travel across the Isle is easier for everyone. In exchange, Hook’s agreed to increase the goods sent straight to VK’s drop site,” JR offered. 

“No one knows where Mal and Jay are, De. They come back we’ll rework the turf and I will apologize to faerie on my knees.”

Diego let out a whistle, the signal of his approval and as much as she didn’t like it, Freddie nodded slightly to let De Chantal know she supported the proposed deal. Freddie had to think of Celia and Dad; a gang war just before winter was going to put a huge strain on them. 

“Fine, the seawitch gets 15% and the travel gets 5, take or leave it,” De Chantal said firmly. 

“Done,” Uma said

“Fair,” JR answered.

And with that the deal was sealed. Freddie and De Chantal took off to join the other VK’s in hide out and figure out how they were going to make it without their leader, their head thief, and their mechanic. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the VK's is the official name of Mal's gang because I wanted it to be simple and they are having trouble with four of their members missing. 
> 
> Well, the gang knows that Mal, Jay, and Carlos are in Auradon, because Jade told them about Jay and Diego checked to see where Carlos was. Evie, they don't know is missing yet, because her mother occasionally held her hostage in their hovel, I mean, castle. 
> 
> I pulled the Horned King's domain name from the Pyrdian Chronicles, though he technically doesn't rule them in the story. 
> 
> Also I am still trying to find the original British legend about a young prince who made a deal with the "old gods" for immortality. If anyone knows about this myth, hit me up in the comments. I know the story was from my grandmother's collection, but her library is slightly enormous and at age 82, she's forgotten more mythology than I've ever learned.


	10. Remedial Goodness: A Practice in Patience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because even heroes have confirmation bias and princesses aren't always kind.

“You find a vial of poison,” Fairy Godmother began, as her daughter fled the room, with a little desperation. So far it appeared that none of the villain kids were willing to take this course seriously. Evie had asked for the question repeated almost twenty times, Carlos would occasionally whisper in Jay’s ear, to which Jay would respond with some sort of minor physical attack, and Mal didn’t even bother to pay attention instead focusing on whatever it was she was drawing. The only time she seemed mildly interested was when Jane walked by and that alarmed the older faerie. 

Jane was at a vulnerable stage in her life and the daughter of Maleficent was not likely to be a good influence on her daughter. Not that it was Mal’s fault of course, but still, the girl wasn’t even 2 decades old and she had one of the most dangerous spellbooks on her person. And the prince was letting the her keep! 

“Excuse me, sorry I’m late,” Prince Ben walked in with Princess Audrey hanging off his arm like some kind of pink clad shadow. “Audrey and I decided to join you all since neither of us has fulfilled the “goodness” education requirement that was added to the curriculum this year.”

It was impossible to miss the steel edge to the prince’s voice that was daring Fairy Godmother to send him away. She sighed and pointed him to the seat in front of Jay. The faerie knew that is was blatantly discriminatory that the class had been added as a requirement for only four new students, but honestly didn’t care. Morality was not something she thought was taught on the Isle and she couldn’t risk two incredibly powerful magical beings and a future ruler to lack even the most basic ethics. 

“You find a vial of poison, do you --” and she stopped as Ben raised his hand. “Yes, Benjamin?”

“Why would I find a vial of poison? That’s not just something you see everyday, what was I doing that I found it?” asked the prince with barely a hint of mischief in his eye, making the old faerie sigh. But his question certainly got the villain kids attention; Mal stopped drawing, Jay and Carlos sat up a little straighter, and Evie’s brow furrowed in thought. 

“You mean you don’t keep poisons around?” asked the blue haired princess. “What do you use to clean or treat lice or test antidotes?”

“Eve, remember most people don’t keep that stuff. Its your job, but even most people on the Isle don’t just leave poison laying out in the open,” Jay answered, ignoring Fairy Godmother attempt to silence him by hitting her pointer on the desk. 

“Yeah, E,” Mal jumped in with a small half smile. “You have the most knowledge of poisons because your step-mom taught you.”

“Mim is not my step-mother. Daddy said that marriage is for people who don’t turn into skeletons. Besides Mim is crazier than Mom,” Evie answered hurriedly answered, glancing over to Audrey who was practically in Ben’s lap and shaking to boot. Fairy Godmother made one last effort to regain control of the class. 

“It’s a hypothetical situation, the details don’t matter. What do you do if you find a vial of poison. Carlos, dear?” She huffed determined to get the skittish boy to participate. 

Carlos looked at Mal who nodded and then he answered. 

“Give it to Evie.”

“Class dismissed.”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Audrey was not happy about going to remedial goodness with Ben, but she was not about to let Ben walk into the arms of that seductress. Everyone saw Evie practically throwing herself at Chad earlier and she had even flirted briefly with Aziz; making it clear to Audrey the girl had no standards or even real interest in either boy. Audrey figure that Evie was simply looking for a away to secure her kingdom, which if she had been any other princess, Audrey would have been willing to help. 

Many of the princesses were in similar situations; either they had brothers who would become king or their kingdom was vulnerable to hostile takeover without the princess securing a strong alliance marriage. Audrey was comfortable in her position because she knew that one day she would be married to Ben and therefore Queen of the United Kingdoms of Auradon. At least she had been. 

Ben had been acting strange for months, growing distant from her. She’d initially thought he’d just been adapting the pressure of becoming a new king, but his coronation was less than a month away and he still wasn’t going back to normal. And then to make matters worse, Audrey saw something when Ben looked at the daughter of Maleficent. She saw the light in Ben’s eyes, the same light her dad had when he looked at Mom. That scared her because her fairy godmothers had assured her that her first kiss would have binding power. It had been their gift to her for her christening. 

Now that Fairy Godmother had dismissed the class, Audrey thought she and Ben would be leaving, but instead of heading for the door Ben walked over to the table in front of the blue-haired pretender and the purple-clad fey. Then he spun around the two chairs, and held one out to Audrey. She didn’t want to, but she sat down and Ben took the seat next to her. The two Isle boys, Audrey couldn’t be bothered to remember their names, pulled up chairs on either side of the villain girls. 

“Thank you so much for that,” Mal said. “Really I was starting to think the old bag would never get the message. Also what the black magic is this about?”

“Sorry,” Ben answered. “I tried to point out how ridiculous this course was, but Fairy Godmother felt otherwise. I’ll take full responsibility--”

“Don’t,” Mal interrupted him. And Audrey jumped in to defend him

“Don’t tell him what to do. He’s about to be your king!” Audrey hid a smile, that would show the faerie who was boss. “Without him, you’d still be on the Isle of the Lost.”

“I had no idea,” Mal said as she rolled her eyes. “Maybe as the leader of the Isle I had some leadership advice for him, but now we’ll never know will we.By the way, maybe don’t go making enemies with the future sultan of Agrabah, it really can’t end well for you”

Ben looked at Audrey and Audrey felt just the tiniest flush in her cheeks. How dare Aziz speak about her like his bad choices were her fault. 

“Audrey what happened?” Ben asked, his voice full of concern

“Nothing,” Audrey answered quickly. “Nothing, just a little spat between friends.”

“With friends like you, princess,” the Arabic boy--man--boy said. “Why would anyone need enemies?”


	11. Teacher's Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sexism is such an ugly color also: Prince Ali

It was utter chaos in the faculty lounge when Fairy Godmother arrived. Mr. Deley and Ms. Lumiere looked to be about to come to blows. 

“Those children are at best a distraction and at worst are not better than the parents,” John Deley bellowed. 

“Those children are our students, John, and if you can’t put aside their parentage I’d have to wonder if you don’t for other students as well. Given that I can prove Chad Charming has been cheating in all of his classes, I’d say you let your personal bias affect your teaching,” Lucy Lumiere 

“Enough,” Fairy Godmother shouted. “I expect this behavior from the students, not my teachers. Now let’s take this discussion to a more private setting.”

She waved for the two teachers to follow. Honestly she should have addressed the situation earlier, but with everything happening so suddenly, she’d been scrambling trying to put together remedial goodness and assure parents and grandparents of the royals that security was more than enough to protect their children from the Island teens, there simply hadn’t been time. 

Lucy was always a bit of an odd duck, but that was to be expected of an art teacher. John was more typical in his beliefs about teaching and life and more than a little up tight if Fairy Godmother was honest with herself. It also probably didn’t help that the man’s mother had been executed by the evil queen. 

Once she entered her office, Fairy Godmother ushered both teachers into chairs opposite her desk. Taking a seat herself, she took a breath before beginning. 

“Understand that everyone is under a great deal of pressure right now, but I would like to know what caused your disagreement.” 

Both Lacy and John began speaking, but Fairy Godmother held up her hand. After silencing her employees, she continued. 

“Not overarching themes I want to know what specifically brought you to the point where I was expecting someone to start swinging in the teachers’ lounge. John, you first please.”

“I was speaking with James about that girl, Evie, and how I am almost certain she is cheating, since she went from completely clueless to intelligible in seconds after speaking with Doug. Lucielle objected to my accusation, which are without proof at the moment.” John said with the barest hint of chagrin in his voice. Fairy Godmother nodded and then turned to Lucy, but before she could say anything, Lucy rushed into speaking. 

“I object to John’s blatant bias for and against students. As I have voiced many times I have more than one girl who has come forward and accused Chad Charming of cheating and John has continuously refused to even allow an investigation. But he’ll accuse a girl who he has already claimed to despise of cheating without any evidence.”

“As I said the last time you brought in some girl who accused Chad the word of a student--”

“Is as good as anyone else’s” Fairy Godmother cut off Mr. Deley from what was sure to devolve into the same debate that has plagued every faculty event where Deley and Lumiere are both in attendance. “John, right now you have no evidence that Evie is cheating. Don’t make unfounded accusations. Lucy it’s not your job to police the students. Now unless either of you have anything else?” 

“I do actually,” Lucy said. “I want to have the daughter of Maleficent transferred from whatever elective she got dropped in to my advance mediums class. The girl has more talent that any 16 year old has the right to. What’s she called anyway?”

“She’s been answering to the name Mal,” Fairy Godmother answered very carefully. She may not like the girl, but she’d be damned before she risked giving away another fairy’s name. “And that is not possible at this time, since all of the Isle students must pass remedial goodness before I’ll allow any electives.”

Lucy made a face, but thankfully kept silent. Before Fairy Godmother could dismiss the teachers a knock came from the front door of her office and in walked Prince Consort Aladdin of Agrabah. 

“That is unacceptable discrimination against your students,” the Arabian said, his accent undercutting his harsh words. “One of whom is now under my guardianship.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delays. I will do my best to make it up to you all this week. Also to everyone asking about Jay, next chapter focuses on him and his new guardian. Mwhahahaha


	12. Riff Raff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aladdin and Jay have an exciting day.

The Prince Consort of Agrabah glared at the principal and teachers with all the intensity of the desert sun. He was working very hard to keep his anger in check, but it was beyond him at the moment. 

A little over thirty years ago, Aladdin had woken up one morning to find his mother in tears and that his father had vanished into the night to seek better fortune. Within a year of that fateful day, Aladdin’s mother had grown ill and passed into her eternal rest, leaving him alone and relying on his skills as a thief and the generosity of street gangs. And then once he’d built himself a life with the help of a loving princess and an irascible genie, he found his father. Only to have him taken away by the Beastly King in his crusade against Magic and Difference. 

Now, after twenty years of that wound festering in his heart, locked away from his children, his wife, his nation, Aladdin got a letter. Written in messy, near illegible and semi-illiterate, Aladdin got a letter from his father. And it was everything Aladdin had wanted it to be and more. It was an apology, it was advice, it was a single request. 

“You are my first born son, and I will always treasure you, my star. But I must ask you to save your brother and sister. He’s not your brother, by birth, but in blood, sweat and tears. Your sister may be younger than your daughter, but trust me, she is the spitting image of you at ten.”

It had taken Aladdin all of twenty minutes after reading the letter ( and sobbing hysterically to his wife) to pull Jaed’s file from the Embassy and get the judge to sign over legal guardianship to him. Because what judge wasn’t going to hand over custody of any child, even the one of the world’s most magical, to first in line for the throne. Aladdin had made note of the man’s name to put him on a list for retirement next cycle; blatant favoritism was wrong, even if it benefitted Aladdin. 

So when sitting in the office entryway, waiting to speak with Fairy Godmother about taking Jaed and Aziz out of school for the day and possibly the weekend, Aladdin was more than appalled by what he heard going on in the next room. Not only was Chad Charming apparently shaping up to be the worst king in the history of Auradon, not that it was a very long history, but High King Adam was hard to top; His ward and the other Isle teens were being punished for growing up with villains, something so far from their control, it would be more possible for Aladdin to wish himself a genie with lightbulb. 

“Prince Aladdin!” Fairy Godmother was clearly nervous and Aladdin fought to suppress a smirk. One of the perks of being married to the Sultana, people instantly gave him respect. “I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”

“Clearly,” Aladdin stretched the word out. “I was here, only to surprise my children with lunch as possibly a weekend away from school. Now, I’m considering whether or not I should pull them out of school entirely, and have them educated at home where I can be certain,” Aladdin paused to shoot a glance toward the male teacher a withering glare. 

“They will be treated fairly and with the respect they are due. Not as royals, but as people.”

“Children?” asked Fairy Godmother, her nerves clearly increasing as her eyes kept flicking to her laptop. 

“Children. As you may know, the paperwork cleared earlier today. I was granted full custody of my step-brother Jaed, though I understand from Aziz he goes by Jay?” Aladdin replied and took grim satisfaction in the complete panic the flooded both Fairy Godmother’s face and the male teacher. The other teacher looked as if she’d won the lottery. 

“There’s no need for such drastic--”

“I feel there is. Now please call my children and have them pack a bag for the weekend. I’ll call on Monday to inform you if they’ll be returning.” Aladdin cut off the faerie and pulled out his phone to text a friend. 

“Hey G, I may have done something slightly drastic. Be prepared for a panicked faerie.”

Within seconds a Robin Williams’ hat tip gif was sent by the tourney coach in reply.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay was worried when the teacher who’d nearly made Evie cry, Mr. Deley, pulled him out of english literature. Not that Jay was paying any attention since, he’d never read or heard of Shakespeare before today and certainly didn’t have the energy to spend straining to read the 5000 page book written in his second language. Translating from English to Arabic in his head wasn’t difficult, but that plus the stress it took to view the letters on the page would have undone him for the day. And he still had four more classes after the block on his schedule labeled lunch, according to Carlos.

But Jay’s concern turned to confusion when he noticed that there was another person in the hall with the teacher. 

“Hello, cousin,” Aziz greeted him in Arabic, Jay recognizing his voice from the day before. “Apparently whatever was in that letter set dad off and he’s pulling us out for the weekend.” 

“What, How?” Jay answered, seamlessly code switching to match Aziz. 

“Boys, it’s very rude to exclude someone from the conversation,” Mr. Deley interrupted them. Jay glared at him, then noticed that Aziz was doing the same. Almost in spite of himself, Jay found he really liked Cassim’s grandson and the future Sultan of Agrabah. It felt a little bit like a betrayal of Jafar’s legacy, but Jay honestly couldn’t remember the last time Jafar did anything for him. Probably because that was the day Jafar dumped him with Cassim and Nasira as a toddler. 

“Apologies, Mr. Deley, I simply long for my mother tongue and Jay is one of the only people here who speaks Arabic,” Aziz answered maintaining the glare. Then he turned and marched down the hall, Jay followed if only to get away from the teacher. 

Then Jay saw him; his father’s sworn enemy, Cassim’s first born son, Aladdin of Agrabah. The man wasn’t much taller than Jay, but was most definitely in his early forties with just a hint of grey in his ebony hair. Honestly he looked like the old photos of Cassim that Nasira had saved from the burnt photo album Cassim had brought with him to the Isle.

“Well, are you ready for an adventure, little brother?” Aladdin asked, offering Jay his hand and a smile 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Agrabah was better than every story Nasira had ever told Jay growing up. It was beautiful with stone buildings and golden sands. The open air bazaar made the one back, actually Jay already knew that the one back home was a dump; this just drove the point home. And it was warm. 

Intellectually Jay always knew that the dessert was warm, but compared to the Isle, it felt like paradise. Jay was known for his sleeveless vests, but that was more a sign of his skill than anything else. Talented thieves went sleeveless to demonstrate their prowess by handicapping themselves and Jay was a very good thief. This did nothing to help with the shivering that inevitably resulted, but somethings were worth a little suffering for. 

Aside from the warm, Jay was completely enchanted with the food. Aladdin had taken Aziz and Jay to a buffet in the heart of Agrabah’s artisan district rather than straight to the palace, and it was spectacular. Aladdin had given Jay a few restrictions, though, which seemed a little bizarre. He asked,  _ asked _ , that Jay only take food that he would eat in the restaurant and that Jay drink a glass of water for every plate he ate. These requests were followed with the immediate re-assurance that there would be food at the palace and that Jay would be able to go to the kitchen, whenever he wanted. Jay complied, but twice he found that he’d habitually pocketed some of the food. 

At the palace, Jay had been introduced to Sultana Jasmine and Aziz’s younger sister, Princess Fauz. The princess was 12 years old, but looking at her Jay couldn’t help but think,  _ Jade would like just like her if there was enough food on the Isle. _ However, the princess was the opposite of his mischievous cousin, being sweet and slightly animal obsessed. She’d begged Aladdin to let her take Jay to her “small zoo” which had been a huge menagerie of animals from all over the desert and several tigers from India. 

One part of the day was a little disheartening, though, was Jay’s appointment with the only genie healer known to man. Apparently she had some bad news regarding his health. 

“Jay, I am sorry to inform you that the damage to your eyes appears to semi-permanent,” She said after looking at Jay’s eyes with some machine. 

“Semi-permanent?” Aladdin asked, as he put his hand on Jay’s shoulder. 

“So, genies are a fairly unique magical being, in that they are able to convert the mass into energy and back again. In doing so Jay should be able to rebuild his eyes without the damage,” the healer answered. 

“Great, how do I do that?” Jay asked.

“You don’t, yet.” She grabbed a pamphlet and handing it to him. “Shockingly enough, Genies tend to age roughly along the same lines as Fey. As an adult, it’s fairly safe, but it is still difficult. And you won’t reach adult status as a genie, until you’re somewhere between 50 and 75 years old.”

“What the Evil are you talking about?” Jay demanded. “I’m not going to be an adult until when?”

“Legally, you’ll be an adult as far as the United States of Auradon is concerned when you turn 18,” Aladdin offered. 

“And your physical body will still develop at a human-normal rate, its your magical development that takes longer,” the healer offered, as if that somehow made up for struggles living blind in a world unaccommodating to disabilities. 

Jay had always struggled on the island, but Auradon was so much worse. Written words were everywhere, posting instructions and rules and basically making it impossible for Jay to navigate. Then there was actual school material itself; everything was written down, with over half the teachers instructing him to read the syllabus whenever he asked a question. Jay had informed exactly one teacher that he was blind and was told to sit up front, because “I can’t give you special treatment.”

Aladdin had informed Jay that if Jay decided to go back to school Monday, things would be better. Apparently Aladdin was close with the Coach who ran tourney and taught phys ed. And the man had offered Jay a spot on the team with Carlos acting as Jay’s eyes. Furthermore, Jay would drop whatever English class he was in and would be meeting with a tutor for standard braille. 

But the most important discussion of the day in Jay’s opinion, was not one that involved him. Well, it involved him eavesdropping on Aladdin and Jasmine. 

“So, legal got back to me about the situation on the Isle. Technically, if we can get their parents consent, we can get all of the children with Agrabah origins off as soon as we can place them with families,” Jasmine had said. 

“I’ll reach out to the other thieves, most of them will be interested in hosting the kids, though, some won’t qualify for obvious reasons,” Aladdin answered. “There weren’t any problems with the High king?”

“Well, some, but he does not have a leg to stand on right now. One of the kids put up a video of Prince Ben and Jay doing CPR on Maleficent’s daughter and the Princess of  Annuvin swooning. Its painted his decision to leave kids on the Isle in a rather bad light,” Jasmine answered. 

“Well, he’s up for re-election in a few years,” Aladdin answered. “Want to torch his future as king?”

“Given what I’ve seen of Adam’s policies, and what he’s done to our family,” Jasmine replied. “I’d love to.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe, just maybe, the other Auradon Royalty should stop angering the Royal Family of Agrabah.  
So to everyone who was hoping Jay would be magically regaining his vision, it's not off the table, but it won't be happening in this story. Jay is going to have more of a story arch though and his friendship with Aziz is going to be the stuff of legend. 
> 
> Next stop, the Devie express station (coming to you next week on Tuesday)


	13. Something Wicked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben and Mal plan an attack on the Isle's health crisis, Jay talks about getting a dog, and so much DEVIE!!!! 
> 
> I'm so sorry. 
> 
> WARNING: Implications of sexual violence. I'm a professional at talking around this stuff, but still.

“So, Aladdin and the Sultana said we can get all of the kids from the Thieves Quarter out on Saturday,” Jay said into the cellphone Aladdin had given him earlier that day. It was a modified phone so that there was a keyboard with all the characters in braille. Jay wasn’t about to start trying to text yet, but Aziz had programmed in his own number, Aladdin, Jasmine, Fauz, and Ben’s numbers. 

“That’s great,” Mal answered. She’d been meeting with Ben about where Jay had gone when Jay had called. “That actually will work out really well with the clinic Ben’s put together and it will coincide with the Moon Madness. So when are you getting back to Auradon prep?” 

“Aziz and I will be back on Monday, but my classes are getting changed. Also there’s talk of getting me a dog or a cane. I don’t think I want a cane, but its so damn hard navigating when I’m alone,” Jay said, knowing Mal would hear the unasked question.  _ What should I do? _

“On a scale of Lefou to Stromboli how bad is it really?” Mal asked, hesitating with her answer. A dog was simply out of the question;Carlos would have a conniption. 

“Prince Hans,” Jay admitted, “And its getting worse.”

“Take the cane, Jay, just as a back up. ‘Los found out that they make collapsing ones here in Auradon, so get one of those and carry it with you. Just in case, you need it,” Mal answered. “Hey, don’t worry. You’re still Rotten.”

“To the Core,” Jay finished the matra of the Vk’s, one of his real smiles gracing his face. “See you Monday.”

Mal hung up and turned back to Ben who was staring at the ceiling and pretending he hadn’t been listening in. She tossed his phone and he scrambled to catch it. 

“So I have to ask,” Ben began as he got up from the floor, “Lefou to Stromboli?”

“Its a scale of how dangerous something is. Lefou, isn’t dangerous, he’s annoying. Tick Tock is above Lefou, but below Hans with a few other villains between. Hans is just above average danger and Stromboli is the top.” Mal answered, but refused to make eye contact looking over Ben’s left shoulder at the wall. Silently, she was nearly begging Ben not to ask the next question. 

“Why is Stromboli at the top? I’ve never heard of him? Or her?” Ben asked, just as Mal knew he would. 

“Stromboli isn’t a villain; he’s a monster,” Mal answered and bit her lip. “Villains are wicked, evil even, but Stromboli is different. He,” Mal stuttered off trying to figure out the best way to explain Stromboli. 

“He’s Carlos’s father,” Mal said then abruptly stopped.

“Oh, okay,” Ben said, clearly not understanding what Mal was implying. “I thought Carlos didn’t know who his dad was?”

“Carlos doesn’t. It’s, you have fairy tales right?” Mal asked. “Stories you tell children to get them to behave and not do stupid things that would get them killed?”

“Yeah,” Ben answered clearly not following. 

“Carlos’s um, creation is kind of a fairy tale that the Isle girls pass around. Jay knows because his little’s a girl.”

“I’m sorry I don’t-OH. Oh my goodness! Fu-” Ben cut himself off as he fell back into his chair. He hung his head in his hands and started shaking. Mal wasn’t sure what to do, but she’d seen Fairy Godmother comforting some girl who’d failed this last week and tried her best to replicate the older fey. 

“There, There?” she murmured and awkwardly patted Ben’s shoulder. And of course he snorted and soon was full on laughing at her. Mal was a little put out, but honestly even she could see the humor in an evil magical being comforting the son of one of the most famous curse victims of all time. 

“So, how? I mean, with no magic on the Isle, how did he?” Ben stumbled over his words as he stopped laughing. 

“Stromboli has magic, but his real power is that he’s very good at manipulating people’s perceptions. And unlike every other villain, he likes shattering people’s minds. Cruella was a mess before Stromboli, but after she just completely lost the plot.” Mal rushed out, before she lost her nerve. “Also, under absolutely no circumstance can Carlos find out about this.”

Ben nodded. That made perfect sense to him, Carlos had enough issues with how jumpy he was without adding that information into the mix. Plus Ben knew he had difficulties with being cast as his father in people’s minds; how much worse would that be for Carlos?

“Right, so can we get back to plotting?” Mal asked.

“I prefer the term planning, but yes let’s do that and forget this conversation ever happened? Okay, so Dr. Chin has three other doctors who’ve agreed to donate their time and Audrey’s mom said she and a couple of the other nurses who treated you guys in the hospital are willing to go. Plus the med school is offering a small tuition credit for any of the students who donate their time; the Dean owed Mom about a dozen favors, so was more than happy to make that happened, so we should have about 15 med students who can act as med tech,” Ben rambled, until Mal asked a question.

“Audrey’s mom?” Mal asked.

“Yeah, Briar Rose; you made something of an impression on her, apparently the whole floor was going through sensitivity training since you left,” Ben answered. He was about to continue with questions about the pirates’ ship range weaponry, when his phone rang. He answered, offering Mal an apologetic smile as he did. She blinked in response.

“Hello Fairy Godmother, what can I do for you?” Ben asked the headmistress. 

“Hello Prince Benjamin.” Uh oh, Ben thought, she’s using the full title. Something bad happened. “I need to speak with you in regards to one of the Isle students, would you mind coming to my office?”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Doug was a good kid; he was possibly the epitome of what an Auradon boy, who wasn’t from a royal family. Obedient, polite, and more than a little bit of a doormat; or so he’d always thought.Then he met her. 

Princess Evie of Annuvin was not from Auradon and once he actually met her every lesson his father and uncles drilled into his head regarding magical royals. She was smart and funny, but little unsure of herself. 

“Mind if I sit here?” She asked. “No where is else free.”

Which was clearly a lie, but one Doug understood. Easier to simply find a new place to sit, then have the entire room get thrown into a fit. He nodded and she took the seat next to him. 

“I’m Evie, Princess of Annuvin,” She said with a tentative smile, very different from the one she’d been sending at Chad moments before. “And you are?”

“Doug, just Doug,” he answered, and silently hoped that no one would rat him out as a dwarf-kid. Doug’s mother had been a typical human, not a dwarf, and Doug definitely took after her.That sucked at home, especially since Mom had passed away when Doug was 10, but it was also the reason he was at Auradon prep.

“He’ll never work the mines,” his father said when he’d asked Snow for a recommendation about what to do with his above dwarf height son. 

“Well, just Doug, its nice to meet you,” Evie said, a real smile gracing her face and Doug felt his heart melt. If he believed in love at first sight, and he wasn’t sold on it, then he loved Evie. 

Class starting interupted that train of thought or at least kept Doug from saying anything too stupid. He stared, though, which was why he saw, Evie use her magic mirror, which abruptly brought him to a full stop. If she was cheating, then, well Doug hadn’t been sure, so he did the sensible thing. 

“So why did you use your hand mirror when you were up at the board?” He asked as they walked out of the classroom. 

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but I’m new here,” Evie started, but her eyes were shifty. As if she was constantly scanning the area for something or someone. “Where I’m from, things are a bit different. Daddy’s an alchemist, but all the elements here have different names and a couple have different weights and its just hard, trying to translate in my head.”

That made perfect sense to Doug; he knew that a lot of the outer areas of Auradon who sent their royals to Auradon prep, stressed the importance of language accommodations or cultural ones. And if Evie had been a classically trained alchemist on the Isle it would make sense that she’d know a lot of the concepts for chemistry class, but that the actual content wouldn’t quite line up. Still magic was frowned upon and Doug liked Evie. 

“Would you like to study together?” Doug asked hesitantly. “I mean, I’m pretty good at chemistry, but magic’s not really taught around here so I’ve never learned any alchemy. Maybe we could trade?”

Evie stopped in the middle of the side walk and Doug nearly plowed into her. She spun around and stared straight into his eyes. For a second, Doug was scared, then Evie spoke. 

“You know your the first boy, outside of the Vk’s to ever talk to me like that? Like, I’m an actual person who can think and have opinions?” 

And Doug felt upset for the smart girl who stood in front of him. Then he realized he was the one awkwardly staring and answered. 

“You are an actual person; and it would be wrong to imply otherwise,” he said with conviction and confidence that he rarely felt. And Evie smiled again. 

“Then its a date,” she said and bounced off to where Mal and Carlos had appeared down the way. 

Doug thought to himself  _ Oh boy, I’m whipped.  _ And he most definitely was given what he did a few hours later which lead to him, Evie, and Prince Chad Freaking Charming sitting in the Principal's office. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, its a cliff hanger. Yes this added a chapter to the story. Yes I did this purely so that I could shove more Devie in and maybe get a little more sympathy for Carlos before he gets what coming to him. 
> 
> For everyone asking about Lonnie, she's coming, its just taking a little time to get there.  
Also why the heck aren't more people addressing the issue of Doug's height? 
> 
> Rape and sexual assault are serious and traumatic. If you or a loved one has been affected there are resources available; check out RAINN if you are located in the continental US for more information.


	14. This Way Comes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Chad is more evil than he thinks, Evie falls in love, and Doug makes a deal the may cost him everything. Also, a simple rule that everyone should have learned in Sunday school “THOU SHALT NOT F@#$#%$ with a WITCH!

Getting off the Isle for Evie was an opportunity to make her mother love her, to make her father proud, to prove to herself that she could do what she was born for; to rule. And of course nothing was going according to plan. 

Sure she’d caught the attention of the Prince of Charmington and Cinderellasberg, but he wasn’t really a good choice for a husband. While it would make her mother ecstatic, she knew how risky it would be for her father’s kingdom. The Horned King had no other children, and given how far the spell granting him his skeletal form had progressed was unlikely to be able to have any other children, if he ever escaped the Isle of the Lost. While he was on the Isle, though, he wasn’t a skeleton, but somehow Evie didn’t think he would be producing another heir. His hit and miss relationship with Mim forever left in cycling between hating the older witch and being the devoted romantic he secretly was. Besides, Mim couldn’t have children anymore, time stealing that ability from her centuries ago. 

So marrying Chad was out of the question; Evie needed someone who was a royal, but wasn’t set to inherit a throne. Chad was set to inherit not one, but two kingdoms. That said Evie was certain that Chad had connections with other princes and thought that maybe he’d lead her to a good candidate. And besides he was hot and Evie was in the market for a rebound, after what happened with Harry. 

But then she met Doug and he derailed all of her plans by not following the RULES. He wasn’t rude, he wasn’t trying to add her as a notch in his bedpost, he wasn’t even ignoring her, and she did not understand. Even Carlos and Jay had come on to her, though Carlos’s puppy love had been adorable and Jay was a flirt may nature of his trade. Hell, Yzma had made a play for Evie when she first joined the Vk’s. 

And then to make things worse, he was smart and sweet. Doug had no training in alchemy, but plenty in chemistry and they’d spent the last three days studying after class and then spent almost the whole day Saturday together. Mal, irritated that Evie had been no help in finding out what happened to Jay, had pointed out that had they been on the Isle, they’d have been a couple already and that nearly had shocked Evie out of the window in their room. 

So Evie had planned to talk to Doug about them and while she was waiting for him behind the bleachers Prince Charming had walked up to her. Apparently, Chad failed to live up to his name as he’d tried to kiss her after Evie had brushed him off and before Evie could respond, Doug came flying off of the top of the bleachers tackling the much-more-wicked-than-anticipated prince. 

A sickening crunch that Evie recognized from the last earthquake on the Isle, when Sam, one of the minion kids, had had his nose broken by the falling debris. Evie screamed for Doug and suddenly there were teachers and other students surrounding the group.

So now here they were, sitting in the Fairy Godmother’s office, Chad’s nose still bleeding and Doug with a look of horror on his face. Evie wasn’t sure why Fairy Godmother had called Ben, but then she did something truly scary; she called King Henri Charming. 

Ben and Mal entered and, in spite of the situation, Evie couldn’t help but notice they made an intimidating pair. She’d bring that up the next time, Mal gave her grief over Doug, since Evie made the decision right then and there that Doug was hers. Intimidating was the best compliment you could give to a couple on the Isle. 

“So what exactly happened,” King Henri asked on speaker. 

“This witch and and Doug attacked me!” Chad attempted to shout, but was thwarted by his very broken nose. 

“I’m so sorry,” Doug started, but Evie spoke up. 

“That’s not what happened at all,” She said putting her best innocent pout. “Doug saved me from him” 

Pointing a finger at Chad, Evie made herself start to cry. Lessons with her mother may have been terrible, but they certainly were effective. Fairy Godmother and Ben looked horrified, Mal looked furious, and Chad actually looked ashamed. 

“It was only a kiss,” Chad mumbled, and his father gasped. 

“Chadworth Henri Charmington, you’re in a world of trouble! Fairy Godmother, I will meet you and my son at the hospital!” the King thundered before he hung up. Fairy Godmother looked pained, but she dismissed them, without any consequences. Evie though was already planning her revenge on the not-so-charming Prince. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chad Charming was beyond furious as he stalked through the men’s dorm hall. His father had come all the way to Auradon City to chew him out in the hospital for trying to kiss a girl; A girl beneath him at that. And since his father had forbidden him from being within 20 ft of the Annuvinian Princess, Chad was going to vent his frustrations on her boyfriend. 

Slamming open the door of the dorm room, Chad stormed in. DOug was laying on his bed staring at the ceiling; his roommate at his desk working on homework, Chad assumed. 

“Beat it, normie,” Chad snapped and the roommate bolted past him and out the door. “Alright traitor, time to die.” 

“Screw you, Charming!” snapped Doug getting up off his bed. “You deserved that broken nose and worse. I know all about what you do to other girls, but leave Evie alone.” 

“Wow, you’re mouthy for a dwarf kid, I wonder what a princess, even an evil one sees in you,” Chad said, but noticed that Doug flinched when he called him a dwarf.

“Oh, she doesn’t know does she? Well I know just what I’m going to do, so no beat down for you. Imagine how she’ll react when she finds out your dad tried to kill her mother.”

“Don’t, please ,” Doug begged. “I’ll do anything!”

“Anything?” Chad asked and Doug nodded. “Well let’s get started, I have a lot of homework for you to do.”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mal and her gang, or at least Carlos and Evie, were gathered in the room she and Evie shared. Evie found it enchanting, but Mal was annoyed with all the color; it felt fake. Evie was proposing a plan though.

“So I’d like to spell Chad Charming,” she said. “He tried to take advantage of me and needs to be taught a lesson.”

“I think Doug took care of that for us, don’t you? Besides, we need to work on our strategy for Saturday,” Mal answered, not really thinking about Chad, but focusing on mental math in her head. High King Adam had put a cap on how many villain kids could leave the Isle and enter the city of Auradon. While Jay had ensure that the Thieves Quarter kids would be getting out, that was only about 50 kids in total. And Mal was trying to figure out how to distribute the remaining spots among the gangs so no one felt excluded causing a turf war she couldn’t stop. 

“He needs to know better than to mess with one of us. What if it had been one of the Lodge girls or pirate kids? They’re all going to be joining us on Saturday and if he tries something then.” Evie trailed off, but Mal understood her point. It would not only traumatize Chad’s victim, but would also set off that turf war Mal was so worried about. 

“What did you have in mind?” Carlos asked looking a little in awe of the story Evie had related before asking for revenge. 

“I’m thinking a love spell will show Charming who’s the baddest witch in town.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So thoughts?  
About Chad's name: I'm sorry, but no royal would name their child just "Chad" so he became "Chadworth" and now you all have my permission to feel sorry for him. Or not, he got kind of evil in this chapter. 
> 
> I've cast Evie as Morgana and one of her most important stories would be the love spell cast on King Arthur. Though Chad is meant to be Lancelot. (Foreshadowing wooooo) 
> 
> Next chapter: ENTER Li Longwei!!! The gangs of the Isle and the villain kids who grew up too soon!
> 
> Also King Adam makes a guest appearance in which he is thoroughly roasted by the royal family of Agrabah


	15. Manic Street Preachers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the villain kids are adults and the world is hopeless. And Jay falls in love ala Chat Noir-style.

It was three in the morning, as Harriet Hook walked down the unlit alley to the original meeting place of the gangs. She’d gotten a letter on the Tuesday Barge and passed on three more letters to the other gang leaders. According to the letter, tomorrow there would be a medical clinic set up for the children of the Isle and two children from each gang got a pass to the City of Auradon. On one hand, Harriet was thrilled; on the other hand, she saw the one major problem and that was why she was going to meet some of the people who, in another life would have been her closest friends. 

“Sup, Ret,” called JR to Harriet as she entered the abandoned cafe, that was reserved for meetings between gangs. Tony Tremaine was laying across three chairs, his stump propped up on a stack of old newspapers. And last but not least was Mike, son of one of the minions. 

“We was worried you ain’t gon’ show up,” Mike said, a lisp that was left over from having his tongue cut off as a child and the bad grammar the result of being an english scoundrel’s son. “You’s never bean late ‘fore.”

“There was an issue with my brother,” Harriet answered repressing the recent memory of Harry biting through their father’s belt as she’d desperately tried to clean the wounds left by the older pirates. “You can probably guess, but I’ll be shipping Harry off tomorrow morning, even if I have to knock him out to do it.”

“So is it true?” asked Tony. “Mal really is getting kids of the Isle?”

“Aye,” Harriet and Mike said in unison. “Key word there is kids, though ain’t it?” Mike continued after Harriet had nodded to him. 

“An’ we ain’t zactly, kids no more.”

That was the issue for the four of them. The Isle of the Lost was founded a little over twenty years ago and Auradon considered adults to be people age 18 or older. Tony was brought to the Isle with his mother at age 5 and was now 22 years old. Mike’s mother was pregnant when she was brought to the Isle and as such Mike was 21 years old. JR and Harriet were both born just inside of that first year; JR had turned 20 in the spring and Harriet’s birthday was looming to come this winter. 

“Well, maybe, I mean, Mal and the VK’s won’t just leave us here?” Tony voiced the concern that was hitting all of them. 

“May not have a choice,” JR offered. “Don’t have a birthday for Gizmo, but it was right around the winter solstice. She and I agreed we put off sending her to the mainland till first frost, assuming more kids get to leave in the coming months.” 

“Why risk it?” Mike asked.

“Cause the next oldest girl in the cave is 14 years old and there are too many littles for her to manage!” JR roared, then turned away. He looked so ashamed of himself, Harriet almost felt sorry for the man. Almost, but not quite. 

In true fashion of bad luck, JR was nearly identical to his father, save the blonde hair that trailed down passed JR’s shoulders. And when he got angry, which for an Island kid wasn’t often, he looked definitively like his father. For most of the villain kids that would be a dream come true; except JR loved his mother, one of the women in Gaston’s harem, and she was terrified of his father.

“So what do we do?” Tony asked. “If Mal manages to get the king to free all the kids and we’re stuck here?”

“I say we move here,” Mike offered. Harriet saw one problem and she knew it was time to share her secret.

“So, this is important, but I have something to tell you guys.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben was nervous. Ben was beyond nervous but he really hoped he was keeping his feelings to himself. He most definitely wasn’t going by Mal’s small smile. Ben had gotten to know the faerie over the last week and a half and if Audrey hadn’t been his True Love, he might have fallen for Mal. 

She wasn’t like most of the princesses Ben regularly interacted with. She had absolutely no time for worrying about appearance. Once Evie had literally walked into the office where Ben and Mal had been meeting and put on Mal’s makeup while they continued the discussion. Mal also had no trouble expressing her opinions; more than once when Ben had idea or wanted to offer something to the Isle, Mal had shut it down. Granted Ben wouldn’t be sending her on diplomatic missions, but it was nice to have someone be blunt and up front with him, instead of talking around him.

Coronation was coming up in two weeks and Ben was thinking of talking to Audrey and see if she would be alright with Mal escorting him. Traditionally, when being crowned King of a city-state, the prince was accompanied by his parents and his closest advisor. As Ben hadn’t had an advisor picked out, he’d asked Audrey, but Mal definitely fit the role of an advisor more than his girlfriend. 

“So we ready to do this?” Mal asked. Ben shook his head and then took a deep breath. 

“We’re still waiting on Briar Rose and my father,” He said and began the countdown in his head  _ 5,4,3,2, _

“What do you mean waiting on your father?” Mal practically shouted. “You’re taking the High King into the most dangerous place in the world and you didn’t bother to mention it until we’re leaving!”

“It’s not an ideal situation,” Ben started trying to figure out the best way to explain public relations to girl who thought having people not attack you on sight meant that they supported your rule. 

“Remember when I showed you the video that got leaked?” Ben asked and Mal made a face. 

“Well, people got really upset about the condition you and the others were in and kind of started calling for my dad to apologize. He thinks this will be a good way to regain the people’s support,” awkardly finished. Mal sighed, but didn’t say anything as she walked over to check the supplies for the third time. 

“Sorry for the delay,” said King Adam stepping out of the limo with Briar Rose and Audrey, dressed as a candy striper. “We had to pick up Princess Audrey.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Briar Rose had no doubt that if left to her own devices Audrey would be back at the house sobbing to her grandmere over the phone about the horrible faerie who was ruining her life. Which was exactly why, she’d made her daughter come on this excursion to the Isle. Briar loved her mother, but she most certainly didn’t like her and regularly fought with her over the laws in place restricting magical peoples in their own nation. Briar didn’t care that at one point in time they’d been an enemy nation; here and now, they were citizens of her nation, dammit. 

Unfortunately, the Queen of Majorica had all but banished her daughter and her husband over the issue. It was simpler, and Briar was aware that practicing patience wasn’t her strong suit, but eventually her mother would die and Philip would consolidate their kingdoms. The only issue was the Audrey was truly her grandmother’s pride and joy. 

“She’s trying to steal Ben from me,” Audrey had yelled. 

“Yes,” Briar answered trying and failing to remain calm, “I’m certain that a faerie who developed a severe cardiac arrhythmia due to denial of magic is clearly determined to convince the prince who is being held partially responsible for her condition to fall in love with her! She has other more pressing concerns, Audrey.”

“She always with him and she cuts me out of conversations and she’s not even grateful that Ben let her off the Isle!”

“Maybe because she shouldn’t have been there in the first place!”

“Enough, can’t we just have one nice dinner?” Philip had practically begged. He was having a rough time at work due to some people trying to blame him for what happened in the video. “Audrey, your mother is going to the MASH clinic they’re setting up on the Isle. I think you should see what the Isle is actually like before you judge this girl’s situation.”

So here they were, King Adam clearly dressed for the photographer he’d brought with him, Audrey the same and Briar, dressed in scrubs with no make-up because she was here to work for the next twelve hours. Ben posed with his father and Audrey for a couple of quick photos, but Mal walked over to Briar. 

“Why didn’t you tell me you were Aurora?” She asked her green eyes, impossible to read. 

“Because I didn’t think it mattered; my other name, what happened with your mother, that stuff has nothing to do with you, Mal,” Briar whispered the name the faerie gave her. Mal nodded then looked back to where the other Vk’s were waving her aboard the ship, one of two that were going to the Isle. 

After boarding and send off, the ferry ride seemed to go smoothly. Evie and Carlos seemed eager to pick Briar’ brain about every possible illness or injury they’d ever encountered on the Isle. It was a lot. Ben was desperately trying to play mediator between Prince Consort Aladdin of Agrabah and High King Adam. Thankfully, both of the older men were determined to ignore one another. Then Audrey screamed. 

Mal, Ben, Adam, Aladdin, and both of the younger Arabians ran toward Audrey while Evie and Carlos scrambled back behind a table that they summarily flipped over. 

“Whoa, I come in peace,” came the voice of the dark haired teenage girl who was climbing out the crates, but it was too late. Jay had launched himself at what he saw as some movement before she began to speak. In a flurry of twists, the girl side stepped Jay and flipped into the boxes. 

“Hi, sorry, I’m Lonnie,” the girl said offering Jay a hand back up.

“Hi, I’m in love,” said Jay. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what happened to this chapter?
> 
> First the title is the name of the band that did the old M.A.S.H. theme song. Would have used the theme song title, if it weren't so explicit. 
> 
> Well it was pointed out to me that it was twice as long as my other chapters and that didn't work so I chopped it in half and now you get this lovely cliff hanger and the next chapter will go up on Wednesday morning
> 
> And yes Jay is completely smitten with the girl who threw him; lucky for him she may or may not have been nursing a crush on him for the last week. 
> 
> Up next: Aladdin and Adam get into a fight(which was originally in this chapter, sorry), the villain kids get medical care, and at least one pirate is left with a shattered heart.


	16. Changing Fate's design

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Go! Fight! Win! and do it all again!
> 
> Also Mal and Evie teach some the new girls how to bake cookies.

High King Adam Sauvage was just about done with his son’s pro-magic lark. First the boy had come home one day in a rage and refused to speak to his mother about what was wrong. Then he turned around and announced, with permission, that he was granting amnesty and a full scholarship to four children of the most dangerous villains on the Isle. Well three of the most dangerous and a lunatic, but that was beside the point. 

And, when Adam was convinced this would all settle down as his son’s coronation approached there was the video. Taking by a teenage girl with no title to her family name beyond that of General. As High King, Adam had privileges and resources Ben did not and as such it was easy to discover the identity of Li Longwei as the ametuer videographer who exposed the conditions in which the Isle children had arrived in Auradon. However, in spite of this, actually taking action as Ms. Li was very difficult; the Middle Kingdom of China was the only member of Auradon to have one very crucial caveat. When Yun had taken over the throne from his father, he revoked the automatic extradition agreements, and stipulated that any citizen of China be prosecuted in China. And it seemed that the girl was taking full advantage of her safety net. 

“People have a right to know what’s actually happening on the Isle!” she snapped at Princess Audrey. 

“And the children of the Isle are entitled to their privacy, Lonnie. If you wanted to video you should have asked me instead of sneaking aboard,” Ben argued with the warrior. 

“I’m fine with it,” Mal said. “To a point, anyways.”

“I think that documenting what we see today is very important,” Aladdin added.

“But it shouldn’t be public knowledge,” Adam answered. He was getting irritated with the Arabians’ continued interference and undermining. Adam was high king and the Arabs needed to respect that.

“Why? You are the one who keeps insisting we are a democracy,” Aladinn rolled his eyes. “Isn’t democracy built on transparency or are you finally admitting that we conquered nations under and Emperor’s rule?”

Adam growled and drew himself up to his full height, but Aladdin didn’t react more than a quirked eyebrow. Aladdin crossed his arms then took a step forward into Adam’s space. 

“Perhaps, the Beast would like to challenge the Street Rat, or is he too much of a coward?”

Adam snarled again, but before the situation could escalate a loud clang sounded through the air. They had arrived at the Isle of the Lost.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pandemonium, thought Carlos as he stumbled through the throngs of kids, absolute pandemonium. He had to give De Chantal and the other gang leaders credit though, they’d gotten every kid on the Isle to be in one place at the same time without a major fight. From Tony Tremaine, who was most definitely the oldest VK in existence, to Squirrelly, a mere 3 months old.

Ben and Mal had selected the field by the cliffs on the far side of the Isle for the MASH clinic; for the space and the privacy it allowed, but it was as far from civilization, or what passed for civiliaztion on the Isle, as you could get. Apparently, Harriet and her crew had gotten exactly one of the four pirate ships actually seaworthy and had ferried all the pirate and minion kids around the Isle. The Huns and the Lodge kids had gone through the forest on foot. Finally the actual Vk’s, Carlos’s fellow gang members, had modified Cruella’s car, because apparently Diego had developed a death wish in the last week. 

“Hermano, we got this,” was Diego had said when Carlos asked if he’d lost his mind like their parents had. Diego was also allowed to speak Spanish; Cruella had ban any language other than English, but her brother was more than willing to teach his son their mother tongue. 

Finally rejoining Mal, Evie, De Chantal, and Jay, at the front, Carlos realized that it wasn’t as chaotic as he’d initially thought. Shan P íng lǐ had had divided the area surrounding the the MASH arena into separate sections; one for the Huns, the Pirates, The Thieves Quarter, the Lodge, and the VK’s. Normally, the Thieves Quarter flew under Mal’s flag, but today they had a banner, with only Arabic characters, that made Aziz grin like an idiot and Carlos had never seen anything more than a half smile from the Arabian Prince. Handing Mal the checklist he’d filled out Carlos stepped closer to Evie.

“I’ve never seen us all in one place before,” she marveled. “Even at the revenge party, there’s never been so many of us.”

“I never want to see it again,” De Chantal said. “Well, maybe at your wedding, but I doubt you’ll invite the pirate kids, Evie.”

Evie blushed, but smiled as well. Carlos didn’t know what had happened between Evie and Harry, but Evie swore up and down and to any and every god that what she and the pirate prince had wasn’t romantic. Nobody but Carlos and possibly CJ, Harry’s younger sister, believed her. Still their not-relationship had ended abruptly when Uma had interrupted one of their not-dates and attacked Evie. Harry had broken up the fight, but hadn’t spoken to Evie since as far as Carlos knew. 

Slowly the day drudged on, Carlos watching intensely and assisting the healers, the doctors( ?) where he could. A couple times he noticed one of the medical team throwing up after seeing some particularly hard kids. Princess Audrey had actually burst into tears when she’d seen Dizzy coughing up blood into Tony’s shirt. Apparently, that wasn’t something that happened in Auradon; Carlos decided that he was very okay with that not happening in Auradon. 

Mal and De Chantal were off intensely discussing the gang to one side, with Mal occasionally stepping over to Ben to ask or answer a question. Once Mal disappeared for almost a half and hour, then reappeared wearing a strange black leather cord, that she had tucked into her shirt. De Chantal had covered for her when Ben had asked after Mal, though she almost certainly had no idea where her leader was. Carlos was honestly surprised that Frollo’s adopted daughter had stepped up to lead without Mal or Jay around. And from what Carlos had seen of her and Freddie’s work, they’d done a pretty good job. Finally at dusk all the kids had been seen and documented by the medical team.

“What do you mean you didn’t see any of the the doctors?” Briar Rose shouted from the huddle of the leaders. “I don’t care how old you are; get to the tent, now!”

Mike, the self dubbed minion king, JR, and Harriet stumbled into the tent then. Also immediately after, Mal frog marched Tony Tremaine in, which made Carlos snicker. Tony was a good foot taller than Mal and only had one leg; it made for quite the comedic picture. Ben and Aladdin rushed in after them, Ben apologizing that he didn’t think that any of the children of the Isle may actually be adults. Quickly three of the doctors and Briar Rose rushed through the exams for the adults, though they ran into some very odd difficulties. 

“Ah know you took blood from some of the kids, you can’t take any from me,” Harriet had stated. In spite of the easy cajoling and the outright rude commentary, she held firm. 

“I lose too much blood on a regular day. Da’s going try an’ kill me when Harry don’t come home. You aren’t getting my blood. 

And then JR straight up passed out cold when they tried to take his blood. Jay crowed with delight at that, after JR came around. Apparently, passing out was uncommon for him as JR recounted multiple other times when this happened. Then he mentioned that he was seeing the world wonky and feeling dizzy and the doctor just about lost his mind. 

“He needs to be in a hospital! This boy, sorry, this man has reported serious neurologic symptoms and without medical care he’ll die!”

At first King Adam refused to allow JR off the Isle and JR agreed with the high king to everyone’s shock. Carlos couldn’t have imagined what was driving JR’s reasoning, till Two and Gizmo came back to see where their brother was. Two and Gizmo were fraternal twins, but Gizmo basically cared for any of the girls JR got out of the Lodge in one of the nearby caves. Thinking about it Carlos realized that if JR left the Isle, the other lodge kids, most of whom were his half siblings would lose their first and only line of defense from Gaston and Ratcliffe. 

Then Gizmo tazed JR and turned back toward Ben and started reciting French Law as if it were poetry. Apparently prisoners were entitled to any and all necessary health care and as JR was currently incapacitated Two would act as his medical decision maker. So JR was leaving the Isle and going straight to the hospital. 

Tony and Mike both had some pretty debilitating injuries; Tony with his botched or rather, the best available amputation and Mike from having one of the older villain’s try and remove his tongue. But both injuries had healed, even if they healed wrong and caused the two men unspeakable pain. Both refused to leave the Isle as well; Mike because he had no one to step into his position, Tony because he was the only source of bread on the Isle. 

Now came the hard part for Carlos; saying goodbye to his cousin. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben was exhausted; the day had been awful and he didn’t exactly want to go home with the way he’d left things with his father. King Adam was furious that JR had been taken off the Isle and to Auradon General, even though the son of Gaston had been nothing but courteous when he’d spokened to them about which of his sibling he was sending to Auradon. Apparently, JR was the most diplomatic villain kid, which made a strange sort of sense given the picture Ben had gotten of the boy’s life. 

The villain kids had broken themselves into four factions and Ben had secured an additionally 8 spots at Auradon Prep, so two from each group came. Plus every single child in the Thieves Quarter was now on the way to Agrabah. Aladdin had actually taken the Vk’s car back to the Quarter to speak with his citizens and more importantly with his father. The Prince Consort had returned with tears in his eyes and a parrot on his shoulder. 

Of the eight villain kids who came to Auradon today, almost all of them were in the hospital. Harry Hook and Bones, representing the pirates, were both suffering injuries that indicated prolonged abuse. Hook’s were particularly troubling, because the internal bleeding was so severe. Dizzy Tremaine of the Vk’s had severe pneumonia and had at some point inhaled toxic fumes that caused lung damage.

Cecilia, the other Vk, was one of the two kids not in the hospital. Shockingly enough, Donna, one of the Lodge kids, was the other and the two seemed to be becoming fast friends. Lancelin son of Lefou, had a broken collar bone and quite possible had brittle bones disease though the doctors weren’t sure if it were genetic or caused by malnutrition.

Last but far from least were the two hun kids; Daiyu, commonly called Dai, had lead poisoning from the tainted water in the Hun’s turf. Lei Guang, also had lead poisoning in addition to what appeared to be a deep allergic reaction to horse hair. All of the Hun’s cloth was horse hair, so clearly this boy had a problem. 

Sighing, Ben got up from his desk, where he’d been writing all this in his journal. Looking at the clock, he realized he’d missed dinner by several hours and headed off to the kitchen in search of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He could use some comfort food after this. 

Just before he got to the kitchen, he heard laughter. Laughter that he’d heard exactly once before in the past week, when he’d slipped and sent about a thousand documents into the air; Mal’s laughter. Smiling, he walked into the kitchen and found Mal, Evie, Cecilia, and Donna surrounded by all the makings of chocolate chip cookies. 

“Well hello ladies, mind if I sample your hard work?” He asked, swiping a cookie from the cooling rack.

“Don’t,” Mal cried as Evie shouted stop. They were too late, Ben had already taken a bite, but he didn’t see what the problem was. The cookie was warm and gooey and 

“Mal have you always had those flecks of gold in your eyes?”


	17. Prepare to be part of the World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Mal discovers feelings, Audrey learns and immediately forgets an important lesson and Evie's step-nephew is lazy and entitle.

Mal did not panic. Panic was not a helpful emotion and it certainly wasn’t a wicked one. Right now, however, Mal couldn’t think of anything else to describe what she was feeling. She knew all about spells going wrong, but nothing had ever prepared her for a spell going right on the wrong person. 

“How do you feel?” Evie asked carefully. Ben smiled, but his eyes were glazed and none of the sharpness he tried so hard to hide was there. 

“I feel good, great. I feel like singing,” Ben answered. “MA-”Mal rushed to him and clapped her hands over his mouth. She gave the fake tinkling laugh her mother had made her practice to mock princesses with. 

“People are sleeping, Ben, maybe not the best time to start loudly serenading the wicked faerie who accidently put a spell on you,” Mal gritted out desperately trying to come with a plan and failing miserably. Ben pulled her hands off his face, but didn’t let go and if Mal were paying attention she’d have noticed how nice it felt to hold his hand. 

“You’re so funny Mal,”Ben said. Then he looked at the clock and his face turned just slightly mischievous and for a second, Mal saw Ben peeking through the spell. “But it is very late and you should be in bed.”

With that Ben scooped Mal up in his arms and took off toward her dorm room. Mal squawked in indignation, then laughed. A real laugh and Ben laughed too. The other girls waited exactly three beats then took after them, following at a distance. Reaching the door, Ben fumbled a little, but managed to open it without ever setting Mal down. Then he gently tossed her onto her bed. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, ma moitiée,” Ben said with kiss on Mal’s hand and bow, before leaving. As he past the other girls he nodded and tipped an imaginary hat, much to the delight of Cecilia.

“So I thought this was going to be a problem, but it actually seems to have worked out pretty well,” Evie said, grinning.

“Shut up,” Mal rolled off her bed and walked over to grab her spell book. “We need to figure out how to fix this before someone notices and we all get shipped back to the Isle.”

“Do you think that other faerie could help? Auradon’s suppose to have nice faeries and she keeps staring at you,” Donna suggested. 

“Mmh. Asking Jane is not the worst idea, but it’ll have to wait til tomorrow. It’s well past the witching hour which means you littles,” Mal tapped Cecilia on the nose. “Need to get some sleep. Tomorrow we face the worst Auradon had to offer; royals.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Audrey was exhausted and it was only 7: 30 in the morning. After getting back from the Isle yesterday, she’d been so upset, that she’d locked herself in her room and cried for what felt like hours. And when she finally got to sleep she was plagued by nightmares. She always knew the Isle was horrible but not what that actually meant.

The villains deserved what they got, Audrey had been so sure; her grandmere had told her so many terrible stories. But those kids? Those kids didn’t do anything wrong. A tiny little girl, who said she was 11, was coughing up blood and being held by her cousin, who had told Audrey that he’d cut off his own leg after an earthquake 2 years before. The ashy baby Audrey held while her mother give the baby his first shots, didn’t have the cute cubbiness that babies were supposed to have. He was skinny and his stomach distended. And the pirate teenager, he’d been about her age, his screamed still reverberated in her ears. 

Which was why she was walking into the hospital with a basket of muffins and thermos of coco. One hallway had been designated for the children of the Isle because they were so distressed at being separated and wouldn’t cooperate with treatment without direct instructions from Mal or Gaston’s son. 

“Why am I here?” asked Prince Seth, groggy from sleep and annoyed that he was not in bed asleep.

“You’re here because Chad got in trouble for something regarding Evie and Doug and Jaime had to go home for the weekend. Ben is clearly not thinking straight still and I need another perspective,” Audrey said. “And because I brought you breakfast.”

“Why do you need an outside perspective? You had this whole plan of attack to stop more people from coming over and how to send the rest of them back,” Seth said with confidence. “It literally took no effort from me and seemed to be working.”

Audrey bit her lip, a nervous habit she’d never quite managed to kick in spite of her grandmother loathing it. The strained relationship between her parents and grandmother wasn’t common knowledge, nor was her mother’s chosen profession and Seth’s mother was a reporter part time, albeit a fashion reporter. 

“Let’s just say I got some new information,” she answered as they entered the hall. There was a loud shriek of laughter from one of the rooms, but mostly it seemed calm. For Audrey it was a stark contrast to the clinic; clean, well lit, orderly. The walls were a cheery yellow with green accents. They stopped at the nurses’ station and were sent to meet with the social worker, who smiled and said how lovely it was to other teens taking an interest in the kids. She told them that there was a guard in with the children because of the JR, who Audrey inferred was Gaston’s son, but not to worry because so far he’d been the consummate gentleman.

Seth knocked on the door to the hospital room before opening it for Audrey. When Audrey surveyed the room it took all her self control to resist squealing with delight. Sitting on the floor with his back to the bed was Gaston’s son, JR, with one little girl on the bed braiding his hair, another sitting in his lap and two younger boys crowded around him. The little girl on the wore an oxygen mask and one of the boy’s arm was in a sling, and there were more than a few open wounds between the group of them, but they looked so much better than the day before. 

“Ssshe rrrrhhhan,” JR struggled to finish reading the page, before he closed the book he’d been reading and looked up. 

“Don’t move,” the little girl said, her voice garbled by the mask, as she yanked on his hair. “You’ll mess it up!”

“Dizzy, we have guests,” JR remonstrated the girl gently. “Everyone, remember the princess from yesterday?”

A chorus of hi princess came from most of the children. The one boy, who looked a bit like he came from the east, merely nodded. Audrey didn’t remember if he could speak English or not. Quickly, Audrey introduced Seth as Prince of Thuringia, which one of the kids quickly pointed out had previously been the Evil Queen’s kingdom. Seth had tensed at that, but thankfully didn’t say anything. After that one of the boys, he said his name was Lancelin, had asked if one of them could read the story, since JR wasn’t very good at reading, Dizzy had to wear the Oxygen mask and somebody called Harry had already refused. 

“This is Dick and Jane. How can you possibly have trouble with Dick and Jane?” Seth exclaimed when he took the offered book. The guard who up til now had been a silent presence made a grumbling noise, Audrey though she caught something about entitled princes, but ignored him. 

“Heavily invested in not getting shot,” JR answered, with a glare that could set hair on fire. “Da didn’t approve of reading, thinking, or basic human decency.”

Seth didn’t answer, but began to read. Audrey handed out her treats for the children. She debated about leaving Seth and going to find the boy who wasn’t in the, but she decided against it. Safety in numbers and she was fairly certain that the other boy had been a teenager so she definitely didn’t want to be alone with him. A princess with a stained reputation was worthless, her grandmere had said at least a thousand times. 

Just as she was about to signal to Seth that it was time to leave, when another one of the villain kids bounded in followed by Ben and Evie. 

“JR!” she shrieked as she threw herself at the man, who quickly moved the other girl off his lap so she wouldn’t be squashed. He hugged the girl, his sister, Audrey thought then after a moment spoke. 

“Belladonna, angel, you’re squashing me. You’re a little big to sitting on my lap, sister-mine.”

The girl, Belladonna, huffed but shuffled about and wound up sitting on the floor attached to her brother’s hip. Audrey turned her attention back to Ben and stepped over to kiss his cheek, but Ben pulled away and gave Audrey a look of distaste. Then he immediately turned back to the kids and launched into an explanation of everything that had happened and was going to happen to the kids in the immediate future. 

Meanwhile, Evie pulled out her mirror, chanted a rhyme and the mirror grew large and floated in the air. Seth ran out of the room at the sight of the mirror; Audrey wasn’t sure if it was fear, disgust, or anger, but she would ask him. Ben took her arm and pulled her out into the hall. 

“Listen, Audrey,” Ben began and took a deep breath. “Princess Audrey, I am very grateful for the time we have spent together, but it’s time we went our separate ways.”

“WHAT!?!?”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Evie winced as Audrey’s scream was heard through the door. She’d done her best, but apparently Auradon’s most aggravating princess had an Auradon conscience and was at the last place any of the villain kids thought she’d be. Seriously, Mal had literally drawn diagrams to predict where Audrey might be and at the hospital wasn’t even there. 

Mal had been quizzing Jane about love spells all morning, saying that there’d been an accident with Aziz, who agreed to play love sick damsel, and Jay messing around. But poor Jane knew less about magic than any of the Isle kids. That had been unsettling, to say the least; Jane was by nature a powerful fay, by knowledge she wasn’t even magical. It was possibly the scariest fact in Auradon; apparently “retiring” magic meant keeping the magical vulnerable and weak. Evie had never put to much thought into policies for her future Queenship, but she was starting to now. 

“Mirror, mirror,” Evie began her chant once Audrey’s voice got quieter. “In the air, show us the Isle without the despair.”

The mirror’s face rippled and showed the Isle of the Lost, before zooming into to focus on the Hun encampment. Lei Guang and Dai leaned in, Dai jabbering a mile a minute in his broken standard. Then the picture switched to De Chantal and some of the other vk’s huddled around a makeshift table playing Lesser Evil. At this point JR stood up and miraculously detached himself from Belladonna. Evie and he stepped off to the side, not out of the room, but far enough to keep the fixated children from overhearing. 

“So how bad is it really?” JR asked, getting straight to the point. Evie sighed. 

“Really bad, like end of the world bad,” she glanced over his shoulder to see the kids still focused on the mirror and the guard staring at the ceiling. “So all of the lodge kids moved into the caverns last night. Gaston went on a rampage. Harriet took a beating so bad, that CJ took a swing at the Captain last night. Now all the pirate kids on shoved onto one boat with no one allowed off near the docks. Even Uma’s there and you can imagine what her relationship with Harriet is right now.”

“Yeah, bad.” JR answered doing a quick survey of the room before he continued. “It’d be worse if Harry had stayed though. Your ex-boyfriend flat-lined last night for 3 minutes and damn near bled out on us.”

“He’s not my ex and he’s not my boyfriend. Actually I need you to give him something,” Evie said as she thrusted the paper bag into JR’s hands. Tell him to eat one before bed each night. He’ll know what it is.”

JR nodded then he seemed to ready himself for something distasteful. Taking a breath he spoke.

“So the original plan, at least my original plan, was that I’d get fixed up and then go back to the Isle. Then the doctor talks to me this morning; says I’m not sick, but that I have a condition. That there’s no cure, but if I take this medication every day, I’ll be fine. Except the medication doesn’t ship well and has to be kept at a constant temperature. So I’m stuck here for good. Well in Auradon, eventually the high king is going to sentence me to a new prison.”

Evie, who’d covered her mouth and had started fighting back tears, broke one of her mother’s precious rules for the first time. She cussed. 

“Screw that noise! How would you like to become the first new citizen of Annuvin?” Evie asked in a rush before she had time to think it over. JR looked shocked, then smiled a smile unlike any seen on his father’ s face. But before he could answer Evie’s phone beeped and she quickly checked the text.

LIVEEVIL: So Carlos got adopted by a dog and Jay’s girlfriend swapped a magical lake for dating rights to my main tank.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a lot happened here.
> 
> 1st ma moitié= my other half (according to my Belgian friend, so if its wrong her bad guys)
> 
> Dick and Jane are an old book series that were written to help teach children how to read. They fell out of popular use, due to the fact that guys named Richard generally stopped going by the name. For reasons. I figure that someone threw the books out and then the kids from the Isle brought over their few possessions from the Isle. 
> 
> JR has type 1 diabetes and it should have killed him long before he reached adulthood, except the Isle is the prison version of Sisyphus's hill. Insulin does not ship well. 
> 
> LIVEEVIL is Mal's online tag and thus her name in all the VK's phones. Except Jay's because Aziz didn't know that.
> 
> Also Merry Christmas, Blessed Feast of Holy Innocents, Happy Belated Channuhka, and whatever of the 49 holidays you are currently or recently celebrated


	18. Magic of Love & Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lonnie is a queen, Ben goes for a swim, and Doug get a new roommate

Li Longwei was not like other Auradon girls, Mal quickly figured out. When she’d first made her appearance on the ship to the Isle, Mal had been thoroughly impressed. She wasn’t happy, however, that Lonnie, as the girl called herself, had filmed Mal and the others’ arrival in Auradon. And posted it on every media platform she could. 

While on the Isle, Lonnie hadn't apologized exactly, but she said she wished she could have exposed what King Adam’s policies regarding Isle of the Lost without also exposing his victims. Mal accepted this better than she would have an apology, because there was nothing fake about it. It was the truth, plain and simple, Lonnie had no issues with the ends justifying the means and she stood by her actions. Weirdly though, Lonnie had shown Mal one video she’d taken on the boat ride of Aladdin and Adam’s fight.

“I’m giving this to you as repayment for the first video,” Lonnie had said. “I know faeries are all about debts being paid and contracts being fulfilled. So I took a weapon against King Adam from you and now I’m giving you a new one. Are we cool?”

“We’re cool,” Mal had replied but left it at that. Now though, she was wishing she’d offered Lonnie a place in the Vk’s. Because Lonnie? Lonnie was an enormous asset.

“So Jane came back to the room in near hysterics because she couldn’t break a spell on Aziz, that I, having spent exactly five minutes with Aziz, know can’t possibly be on Aziz. And that somehow it was all her fault,” Lonnie said when she walked into Jay and Carlos’s room where they were all assembled minus Evie. Even Doug and Aziz were there helping search all the books of magic from the library. 

“What’s your point?” Mal asked.

“I may have a solution for you guys, but I’ll only give it to you on two conditions. One I get to ask Jay a question and he gives me an honest answer. Two you never tell me who you accidently love spelled.”

“Done!” Jay had exclaimed, then immediately backpedaled and turned towards Mal. Or rather the space immediately to Mal’s left, which was telling how much he could actually see today. Mal rolled her eyes, in spite of this having no effect on Jay whatsoever, but nodded and waved Lonnie on. 

“So when we first met you said you were in love and I’d never ask if you hadn’t said that, but would you like to go out sometime? On like a date or something?”

“YES,” Jay said, but Aziz snickered the whispered something into Jay’s ear. It was obviously stupid and probably sexist given that Jay’s response was to shove the Arabian prince to the floor. 

“Would you like to be my date for Coronation? I’ll be sitting with the Agrabah royal family and I have a plus one according to Coach,” Jay asked. 

“Sorry to interrupt, but emergency takes priority over your dating life. What’s the solution?” Mal demanded. 

“Dad’s really big on knowing enemy territory, and even though I’m here as a spy on the next generation, he made me study the City-State of Auradon’s geography. There’s a lake in the royal forest that has some, shall we say interesting properties. It cleanses someone’s magic, which in theory should wipe out any spell. Assuming its a spell and not a curse.” 

“It’s definitely not a curse,” Mal said, but Doug asked what the difference was and Mal answered. “A curse is a spell with an anchor point. My mom used a spinning wheel as an anchor for her curse on sleeping beauty. Anchor deals with the backlash of forcing reality to change form its natural state and if the anchor is destroyed the curse is permanent. See High King Adam’s rose.”

“Well that’s disturbing,” Jay said flippantly. He was clearly done with the conversation. And possibly thinking of the nearest dark closet, but Mal opted not to pursue that line of conversation. She pulled out her cell phone, and it was still weird that technology worked without any extraordinary effort, but Carlos screamed. There was a dog, a tiny little dog that somehow found its way into the room. 

“Get that thing away from me!” Carlos’s voice jumped three octaves and possibly broke a window. Mal looked at Carlos, standing on the table and the tiny dog and made a decision.

“Doug, does the tiny dog bite?” Mal asked. 

“No,” Doug was still looking very confused. Apparently no one had told him about Carlos’s deep seated fear of anything with fur that walks on four legs.

Mal picked up the dog and shoved him at Carlos, who promptly fell off the table. The dog yipped and began licking Carlos’s face, which of course started Carlos screaming. 

“You have to get over your fear of dogs, Carlos. Jay is making a huge sacrifice using a cane for now, but ultimately he may need a dog and I can’t afford to let him lose his independence,” Mal said over the shrieks, which trailed off. 

“Wow, this actually feels, nice?” Carlos asked. Mal let the tiniest smile grace her face, to give Carlos some reassurance and proceeded to text Evie the new plan.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben was appalled at everything that had happened at the hospital. From the social worker giving Audrey and Seth access to the kids without proper clearance to Audrey’s complete and utter meltdown to the way the staff handled Harry Hook’s resulting panic attack was simply disastrous. In his mind he knew something was off with himself, but that couldn’t possibly be considered a problem compared to everything else. 

Audrey had started screaming at Ben for breaking up with her, in the hallway, and the one Isle teenager who wasn’t camped out in Drusilla's--Dizzy’s--room had heard the yelling. Apparently girls yelling was the indicator of something really bad to the pirate prince as Evie had referred to him, because he decided to jump out the window. And they were on the third floor of the hospital; with windows that didn’t open. 

In any other situation, Ben would have been very impressed that Harry, who’d nearly died and was still recovering, had managed to crack the glass. But the nurse called security and they’d tried to restrain Harry and he nearly sent everyone involved in that attempt into surgery. Evie had managed to calm him with some candies Ben wasn’t going to ask about, but was certain that were somehow magical. 

Ben had just started chewing out the charge nurse, when Evie came out of Harry’s room and pulled Ben out of the hospital. He protested, but she insisted that they leave right then as Mal had a surprise. When she said Mal’s name Ben noticed that his brain got all fuzzy, but it wasn’t bad. At least felt the same as it did back when he first started dating Audrey, but without the queasiness. It was nice. 

The car dropped Ben off at the edge of the royal forest, where Mal stood waiting with a picnic basket. She was beautiful; leather jacket over a deep purple dress that nearly matched her hair perfectly. He offered his hand and she blushed as she took it. And it filled Ben’s heart with warm, but just a little sadness. She shouldn’t be embarrassed by such little affection. 

Mal led him down the path and onto the rope bridge, before Ben realized where she was leading him. The enchanted lake was one of Ben’s favourite places growing up, but he hadn’t been there since he was 13 and Chad had pushed him off the rocks for dancing with Audrey. Upon reaching the lake, Ben recounted this story and Mal gave a tiny smirk.

“Well why don’t you relive that particularly memory,” she said and playfully gave him a shove. Ben, feeling playful, fell back into the water.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“BEN!” Mal screamed, as he hit the water; she hadn’t actually meant for him to fall and had pushed him that hard. Rushing down the embankment, Mal briefly remember, Briar and the doctor telling her not to get her heart monitor wet. She ignored that memory and jumped into the water. Immediately the monitor started beeping and Mal remember one other thing; She had no idea how to swim.

Just as her panic was turning into terror at the thought of drowning, powerful arms scooped her up. Ben, wet and alive, pulled her close to his chest and got them to shore.

“You can’t swim?” Ben asked after they’d caught their breath. “You grew up on an island, how have you never learned to swim?”

“Barrier, crocodiles, sharks, electric eels, pirates,” Mal rattled off some of the reasons she’d stayed away from the water on the Isle as she fiddled with the heart monitor, in a vain attempt to silence it. She still wasn’t sure if the lake had done its work. 

“How do you feel?” Mal asked. 

“Aside from almost accidentally drowning you, I feel fine, normal,” Ben answered not looking at Mal. 

“Do you, do you still like me?” Mal asked. 

“Well, given that I’ve liked you since our first conversation: yes, I still like you. But, hey, let’s give the magic lake some time to kick in.” Ben answered finally looking Mal in the face. His eyes betrayed the mischief of his words, deep sadness filling them. 

“I’m, I didn’t mean to spell, you,” Mal started stuttering, but Ben interrupted her. 

“I know, you told me not to eat the cookie and I did anyway. Why were you even, never mind I don’t want to know who your crush is,” Ben trailed off.

“No, they weren’t for a crush. Evie wanted to get back at Chad for trying to kiss her. It was a puppy love spell. The whole point was to make Chad act goofy around the girl he liked and oh,” Mal realized what that meant. Apparently Ben liked her, he actually liked her. “But Audrey?”

“I don’t know,” Ben shook his head as he spoke. “I’ve always thought Audrey was my true love, but now. Why else would I put up with her? She isn’t exactly, well, she doesn’t agree with me on anything really.”

Then Mal had an idea and it turned her insides to ice. Magic couldn’t force someone to be someone else’s True Love, but it could definitely convince you that someone was. 

“Ben, when’s the last you went swimming here?” 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry Hook was having a bad week. If he was being honest with himself, he was having a bad life. Still the last three days were an over the top amount of eel dung and he was over it. First some of the older pirates, well it was always bad when they caught him, which they did a lot less now that he was almost a man. Then his Da had whipped him for screaming and Harriet had rounded out the torture, but dumping an entire bottle of rum on the wounds to prevent infection. 

The next day, he been carried(!) by his sisters to some clinic the Vk’s were sponsoring and the healers did all sorts of horrible things in the name of “helping”. Then Harriet had got into a fight with Uma which Harry didn’t know the end of cause Harriet’s boyfriend, Mike, had knocked Harry out. 

Next thing he knew he was in something called a hospital in Auradon with a bunch a strangely dressed people pounding on his chest. Apparently, he’d died, according to JR who’d come in the second Harry started yelling for Harriet. JR was alright in Harry’s book; he took care of his siblings, no matter what gang he or she decided to join and had set more than a few of Harry’s broken bones over the years. 

Then the next morning when Harry was desperately trying to sleep, some girl started screaming and he had an episode as a result. But then his princess showed up and made everything right with her magic candy. Or at least she managed to let Harry come out of his mind where he hid during an episode. And she promised she’d find a way to make things better for him. 

Uma was his Captain and he’d follow her to the end of the world and back again, but Evie was his princess. She was possibly the only thing keeping Harry from the madness that claimed so many others like him. How Mal had avoided the curse of the Isle’s faery-folk, Harry was unsure, but he was willing to bet there was a reason Evie was forgiven and allowed into the Vk’s so quickly. 

Now, Harry and JR were walking up to Harry’s dorm room at Auradon Prep. Well, JR was walking and pushing Harry in wheelchair. JR had been released from the hospital and almost immediately turned the all-but abandoned embassy for Evie’s nation into an up-and-running command center for the princess. Harry had been released contingently; He was on bed rest for the next week at least.

“You’ll be fine, pirate.” JR said, the tiniest hint of affection in his voice. “Evie’s got you set up to room with her new beau. Mal and Jay are more terrifying than ever and the nearest villain is me.”

“Right,” Harry answered. “Let’s meet Doug.”

JR opened the door to reveal a very peculiar site. Doug, Evie had shown Harry a picture, appeared to be in a shouting match with a very short man. So short in fact that Harry thought he must be a dwarf.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I drop a lot of bombs here. 
> 
> Disclaimer: Mal's method of overcoming Carlos's fear is NOT how you should actually handle a phobia. I simply refuse to write how that's actually done because it takes way longer than a single scene so poof story telling magic. 
> 
> Lonnie and Jay are the power couple with no issues that we deserve. Devie is cute and still #1, but Jonnie is stab you in the gut kind of hot. Because they would stab you in the gut if you called them cute. 
> 
> So Ben and Mal have Issues that will need to be addressed, but why would I do that here?
> 
> Just to be 100% clear: Harry Hook has a faerie mother and it has thoroughly messed him up. Also remember that Harriet has a secret? Yeah, this isn't it, but it is related to Harry's magic. 
> 
> Sorry about adding one more chapter. The final battle is running too long so you've been warned the next chapter is a cliff hanger. And it will be rough.


	19. Family Matters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here in Doug loses and gains a family. Ben gets the Isle equivalent of therapy, which is really bad. Then family day happens along with coronation.  
Cliff hangers are truly terrible. Especially when you land on your head.

Doug was not in a good mood when his new roommate--the last one had filed for immediate removal after Chad Charming broke in--arrived. Harry Hook, the Pirate Prince of Isle of the Lost, and apparently Evie’s best guy friend. Her words exactly, before she recounted the story of Harry chasing off one of the Evil Queen’s goons who decided the look, but don’t touch policy didn’t apply to him, when they were 11. To make matters worse, apparently Prince Seth had strongly objected to Doug and Evie being Doug and Evie, so he made the oldest play in the book for bullies. He tattle to their parents. 

“Now, I’m not saying that I don’t understand, at your age with hormones raging,” Dopey was rambling as he tried to explain why Doug had to break up with Evie, even as JR and Harry were getting situated. 

“Dad, I love you, but shut up! You haven’t even met her, she’s amazing, smart, and kind. Trust me just agree to meet her,” Doug interrupted his father, but kept staring at JR and Harry who were both dutifully counting spots on the popcorn style ceilings. 

“No, Doug, you listen to me. Until this is sorted out, you aren’t allowed to come home,” his father bellowed as best he could. “The King won’t allow allies of the Evil Queen into the kingdom and I. I have a duty to the mines. I’m sure you’ll do the right thing soon.”

And with that his bald, sincere, father turned and walked out of Doug’s life. Doug didn’t know for sure, but he felt that this was the last time he was going to see his father. 

“Rough gig, mate,” Harry said from his bed. “Still, in my personal experience you made a good call. Evie’s worth more than any parent I know and I know lots a’ parents.”

JR flicked Harry in the forehead, but nodded in agreement. 

“See when you talk like that, people think you’re dating, Hook,” JR commented lightly as he struggled to collapse the wheel chair. 

“EW!” Harry exclaimed, much to Doug’s relief. While Harry may be bed ridden, Doug had quickly compared their physiques and found himself lacking. “Tha’s like saying I wanna bang Harriet or CJ! Or if you wanted to shack up with the twins.”

JR made a face, which Doug could only figure meant that such an occurrence would be unthinkable. The wheel chair finally gave under JR and the man fell backwards into the wall, which sent both Doug and Harry into a fit of laughter. 

“Harry, try to hold still, you’re not supposed to be moving about just yet. Doug, congratulations on making your first right of passage for one of Mal’s Vk’s, but don’t think I won’t hit you,” JR said effectively killing the mood. He ruffled Harry’s hair and left the two boys alone. 

“What did he mean right of passage?” Doug asked Harry. Harry threw up his hands in sort of shrug, but couldn’t move his torso, so it lost some of its effect. 

“Mal’s gang, that’s the Vk’s, which you’re one of, sorry about that, have this knack for getting thrown out of their parents’ homes at least once. It’s considered a right of passage. Tell Evie about it, I think she’ll make you a cake and Mal’ll give you your first stripes,” Harry answered as if this were common knowledge that he was generously repeating to someone slow. 

“I can’t tell her,” Doug said, misery filling his whole being. 

“Sure you can, it’s Evie. Her and food make everything better,” Harry said, as if there was something weird that Doug didn’t want to share everything with one of the only people from Isle who wouldn’t kill you for showing weakness. Then his eyes narrowed and Doug began to sweat. “Unless of course, you haven’t told who your people are.”

Doug let out a little squeak and backed away from Harry. Harry, who throughout all of this had been laying on his back, rolled to face Doug. 

“Piece of advice?” Harry said with just a hint of venom in his voice. “Evie won’t care that you’re an overgrown dwarf, unless you’re simply using her to get revenge on her mother. If that’s the case I’ll tell you exactly what I told Mike after I caught him and Harriet shacking up.”

“You’ll kill me?” Doug asked. Harry laughed, but it sounded more like broken glass. 

“Nah, mate. Evie is perfectly capable of killing you herself. I used to take care of crocodiles; only safe hiding place from Da. I’ll make sure they’ll never find your body.” 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben was taking a personal day. At least that’s what he’d told Fairy Godmother in an email explaining why he wasn’t in class, saying that he needed to prepare for his coronation which was only five days away. In reality he was, well he didn’t want to say moping because it wasn’t quite somber enough. Brooding would have worked, except that his version of what brooding looked like was his father’s dark moods when he’d shut himself up in his study for days at a time, and Ben didn’t think he was quite that because unlike his father, he had a good reason to be in a mood. 

Mal had figured out that Ben had been under not just the puppy love spell, but that he’d been spelled several years ago to think Audrey was his true love. The puppy love spell had simply overridden the original spell, because Ben, apparently, didn’t like Audrey at all. Which left Ben wondering how much of his life and his decisions were actually his. Stewing in his own misery was interrupted by none other than his ex-best friend. 

“Ben, what actually happened, yesterday, man?” Chad asked after he ignored the call of “I’m busy” and come in anyway. “Seriously, you’ve always said Audrey was your true love.”

“Chad, get out. I don’t want to talk to you or anyone else,” Ben said, lifting the pillow off his face just enough that Chad could he what he said. Chad marched over and stole the pillow. After he threw it across the room and Ben’s other pillow, just as he’d been reaching for it, he continued the interrogation. 

“Come on man, you broke up with Audrey and she hysterically demands that I start going out with her to make you jealous. Then you don’t show up for class today and all your Isle kids held some kind of secret meeting with Aziz and Doug in the commons tower. Even the adult one, who apparently is the Annivunian princess’s head of security, was up there. What’s going on?” 

Ben sat and shoved Chad off his bed, all of the sudden angry. Angry at Chad for being such a pushover when it came to Audrey. Angry at Audrey who took advantage of him, even if she didn’t know about. Angry at his dad for leaving him vulnerable to magic. Angry at everyone and everything because he apparently loved the one girl who he could be with. 

“What happened is that Mal broke a love spell on me and I have to figure out how much of the last 3 years of life are actually mine!” Ben roared. Chad flinched visibly, but Ben kept going. “Better watch out Chad, maybe the Princess of Majorca spelled you too and one day the spell will break and you’ll have nothing too.”

“Enough.” Ben felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see JR, there. “Beat it, small hands, the real men are going to talk.”

Chad got up, but much to Ben’s surprised began to protest leaving. Ben was still seeing red though and didn’t much pay attention, until JR had steered him into his desk chair. 

“Breath, kiddo, in through the nose and out through the mouth. That’s it,” JR coached Ben through his breathing, putting his head between his knees, and then through tears Ben was deeply ashamed of. 

“Sorry,” Ben said once he finally got his voice under control. JR cocked his head to one side as if confused. 

“You Auradons say that alot for some really stupid reason.” There was no malice in his voice as he spoke. “It literally why I’m here. Mal was worried, but didn’t think you’d want to talk to her about it. Donna, as sweet as the girl is, is a bit young to be helping you and Harry is in no condition to walk you through this. So that left me.”

“Why you?” Ben asked curiously. 

“Cause I’ve walked several of my sisters, Donna included, through being taken advantage with alcohol and you call them drugs. We figure magic isn’t much different” JR answered patiently. Ben blushed. 

“It wasn’t like that. Audrey and me, we never--” Ben stuttered unsure of what or how to say what he meant. 

“Why don’t you tell me what it was like then?” JR asked. And so for the rest of the afternoon, Ben recounted every detail of his relationship and his feelings, and most of the last three years. And for some reason, that was beyond Ben, it helped. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mal smiled as Ben waved from the courtyard below where he was standing with his parents. Family Day was today and the Vk’s, well the Isle Kids as they had been dubbed, since Auradon didn’t understand gang differences and they didn’t really matter now, were all hiding in the commons tower, save Jay who was meeting the Fa-Li family and spending the rest of the day with Jade and Aladdin. Even Doug had joined the group, his own family not in attendance due to King Florian giving the Evil Queen a run for her money as worst parent of the couple. 

Today had actually been, well Mal still hesitated, not wanting to tempt the Fates. But it was better than yesterday when Fairy Godmother had had a video call setup with their parents. Gaston had appeared on screen and Donna had immediately fled the room in terror, Lancelin not far behind. Cecelia and the Hun kids had left after them as none of their parents had been on screen. That had left Mal, Evie, Jay, Carlos, and Harry to face their parents. Harry probably would have left, if he could maneuver the wheel chair by himself.

It had been an awful conversation that followed. Evil Queen was furious that Evie had a boyfriend who was not a prince. Cruella had slipped in and out of reality, switching between thinking her toy dog was real and fury that Carlos had one. Jafar had been ambivalent right up until he saw Jay’s cane. Captain Hook was murmuring promises to Harry that things would be better when he came home, apparently not realizing Harry was never going back to the Isle. And Maleficent, well Maleficent had said only one thing. 

“I’ll be seeing you real soon, dear. And then we’re going to have a little chat about obedience,” she’d said then ended the call. On the plus side Fairy Godmother apologized and Harry proceeded to tell her exactly where her apology could go. 

“Mal, come one!” Evie whined. “I need you to come over here and let me finish this dress for coronation. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was coronation day, the biggest celebration of the year, possibly the decade depending on when Ben married since it was generally assumed he would become high king after his father. It was also the day she’d been waiting for, the day the wand would be brought out of its vault in the museum. And she was ready.

For years faeries, pixies, elfs, and other magical creatures and beings had suffered persecution. Two decades wasn’t that much time in the life of most of them, but their numbers had been decimated. The youngs ones dying one after another, without the knowledge they desperately needed to survive. Older ones dying when the denial of their magic became too much or when the Faerie Slayer caught them in her kingdom; But no more.

She ignored the ridicule of the newscaster, it wouldn’t matter after today anyways. Maybe her mother was willing to be subservient, but she would show them all what a real faerie could do. Even without experience, the wand would be enough, imbued with the magic of a thousand fay.

Prince Ben’s entourage was announced and she was surprised to hear that Mal was leading the group, escorted by Carlos. Then came Jay and Lonnie, followed by Aziz, then Chad. Ben entered last, alone, much to the disappointment of the Faerie Slayer, who had clearly wanted her granddaughter to walk with him. He knelt before Fairy Godmother, who raised her wand and that was when Janessa snatched the wand. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“NO!” Mal screamed as she rushed forward and tackled Jane, seizing the wand from her hand, but it was already too late. Mal felt the magic blast from the wand just as she managed to get a hold of it, then a silent and somehow deafening crack shook Mal, Jane, Harry and the Fairy Godmother. Harry fell from his wheelchair, JR catching him at the last second, though Mal couldn’t see that, but somehow knew. Fairy Godmother fell to her knees, then dropped in a dead faint. 

“What happened?” Belle demanded.

“I broke it,” Jane said with a smile her teeth turning pink. Mal recognized it from back when Reyan had been dropped off a cliff and landed on his head. The older faerie boy had not only never recovered, Mal actually thought he was dead. “Maybe magic is evil, but I want to live.” 

“We need a doctor up here,” Ben called offering Mal his hand. “Someone call EMS for Jane and Fairy Godmother.”

“Ben, we have bigger problems,” Lonnie said. “Jane broke the barrier.”

“Maleficent is coming,” Mal said, so sure. She felt her mother’s dragon form flying across the bay, even as she spoke. 

“Oh Mallie,” called a voice from the back of the church. Mal’s blood froze as she turned to see Hades striding through aisle, Auradon royals and heroes alike scattering to get away from him. “Come give your old man a hug. We've got a lot to talk about, but I’m so excited to meet your boyfriend there.”

“Hi Dad,” Mal said, her voice smaller than it had ever been in front of other people. She threw up a sign behind her back, so that the others on the platform could see. Evie and Doug skidded to a halt at the steps of the sanctuary between Hades and the group, so Mal was certain they had the message too: Keep Hades away from Ben at all costs.

“Really, kiddo?” Hades asked slowing his pace but not stopping. “You’re setting a son of Earth,” Hades pointed to Doug and instantly the ground swallowed the half dwarf up to his neck. “And a half dead princess to stop me?”

Hades snapped his fingers and Evie screamed. She threw her hand over her face and dropped to the floor as skeletal horned tore their way out of the top of her skull. Hades stepped over her and started up the stairs. Jay, Aziz, Carlos and raced around Mal and Ben to get to Hades, but Fa Mulan and Aladdin got to him first from behind. 

Hades slammed the back of his fist into Mulan who began to glow a bluish color, as she collapsed. Then he grabbed Aladdin and threw him into Aziz. Hades flicked a finger at Jay who started to crumble as if he were made of sand. Dude lunged at Hades, who swung his foot out knocking the dog off the sanctuary. Hades then glared Carlos and whispered something in a magic tongue, and Carlos’s eyes began to glow red and he stood stock still as if he was a statue.

Mal glanced out of the corner of her eye and saw Lonnie pulling Belle out of the Church. King Adam and Chad remained; Chad standing with a sword that had clearly been Jay’s back up weapon, in a defensive position in front of the King. Then the sound of a single gunshot, brought Mal’s eyes back up to see that JR had made a shot from the edge of the choir loft, where he and the other Isle kids had been sitting. It looked as if all the kids had dropped to the floor, pressed as far from view as possible, Mal barely able to make out Harry’s and Dizzy’s heads. The bullet bounced off Hades neck, right between two of the vertebrae in what would have been a kill shot for a mortal. 

Hades growled one final time and snapped his fingers. Blue flames ten feet high encircled the sanctuary at the base of the steps. Mal thought quickly and made her decision. She pinned herself in front of Ben, her head turned to the side to provide maximum coverage and her fingers intertwined so she had complete control of his arms. 

“You can’t have him, Dad,” she said, her voice still small, but growing confident. “Not without taking me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So who though Maleficent was going to show up here? Come on raise your hands. JK
> 
> So Harry and Doug room together. This will be a problem for both of them, because once Harry's better and Doug lead very different lives. 
> 
> JR is the big brother everyone on the Isle needs. He is very tired and would like a nap. Which he won't be getting here. Also Ben gets spelled in a pretty life altering way he needs to someone to talk guy feelings with who isn't his ex's rebound.
> 
> Family Day in the movie is literally the world's worst planning, and I still can't get over why that happened at all. 
> 
> Jane's real name and what she calls herself in her head is Janessa. And her coming out of nowhere was the point. She's hit her limit of how much she can take being the bad guy without actually having any real power to be bad. Also if you're teeth turn pink within an hour of a head injury, go the nearest ER. It's very likely that you have a cerebral hemorrhage and are possibly dying. Other common option is all the blood vessels in your gums burst, which while painful, isn't fatal, but be safe. 
> 
> Hades is a BAMF. I know he isn't in Hercules, but he really was kind of pulling his punches and off his rocker. No, he needs to be terrifying otherwise I can see no reason why any of the other Auradon characters would know he exists. Finale goes up Thursday/Friday depending on your time zones.


	20. Finale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben gets an old sword and becomes King of the World.

Hades was very impressed with his daughter and her gang, but it was a little bit irritating that  Melantha thought he was there for the boy-king’s soul. True he had a claim, given what Adam had done, but really did she think so little of him?

Of course she did, after all his power had damn near killed his little flower on the Isle, even if she didn’t know how or why. But he’d given her the ember, which she desperately needed to hold the warring magics in her from her parents.

“I’m not after him, Mallie,” Hades said, seeing the disbelief in his daughters eyes. “Though as your father, its my duty to scare any of your boyfriends.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Mal said, still pressed against the boy-king. Hades snorted; if he wasn’t her boyfriend yet, he was certainly going to be within the next few months. Unless of course, Hades mused to himself, they decided to skip the innanities of human courtship and jump straight into tiny hero making. They were literally made for each other, no one else would ever compliment them so perfectly. But there would be time for that later, right now he was in a rush. 

“Whatever you say kiddo,” Hades said. “But I came to warn you and arm you, not to steal what’s rightfully mine. Catch.”

Hades summoned the staff that Maleficent was so proud of and sent it flying toward his daughter. She managed to catch it without moving more than a single arm, which Hades would admit was rather impressive given she wasn’t even fifty years old. 

“Your staff can hurt your mother, but if you want to actually defeat the Dragon Faerie, your going to need an enchanted sword. And not some little enchantment either, we’re talking centuries of magic build up or a triad blessed sword. The Half-dead princess can help you with that.”

“Why are you helping me?” Mal asked. Hades strood up to his daughter and kissed her forehead. 

“Because you deserve only the best the world has to offer, Melantha,” He murmured in her ear. Mal gasped as she felt the magic behind his words seep into her skin. He’d guarded her name all throughout her time on the Isle, now that was up to her and her boy-king. 

“I don’t have armies of children running around like my brothers,” Hades said at a normal volume as he stepped back. “That’s because I love all of mine. We’ll meet again, daughter, now go set the world on fire.”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mal watched as her father was swallowed by the ground and then all the flames went out. 

“So that happened,” Ben said with a shaky grin. “Your secret is safe with me, I swear on my life.”

“What secret?” Chad demanded as he and King Adam rushed over. “Cause it’s pretty obvious she’s Hades’s daughter.”

Mal watched as Ben closed his eyes and she could practically hear him counting to ten in his head. King Adam patted his son down, checking him for injuries, that Mal knew weren’t there. 

“Mal, Ben look!” Evie shouted from where everyone else had gathered just off of the sanctuary steps. She still had blood in her hair surrounding the young horns that had just ruptered from her skull, but otherwise looked alright. Evie was pointing at the magic mirror, which she had enlarged, and it depicted a flying pirate ship battling Maleficent’s dragon form. 

“So Harriet’s got the Lost Innocence flying and they’re firing on Maleficent,” Mal stated. “And is that Uma?”

Uma looked very different from the girl Mal had fought with just a few weeks ago. Her blue and black braids whipped through the air along with eight tentacles where her legs had been. 

“Sis always did take after her mom,” Cecilia exclaimed with glee. “And I saw Freddie and De Chantal in a little boat coming toward us a minute ago!”

As soon as she said that Mal heard a crash and the breaking of glass. She smiled in spite of herself as she turned to see her two lieutenants jumping down from the paddle boat where it was lodged in the window. JR, who’d just gotten Harry seated, grinned as well to Mal’s surprise. 

“If it isn’t the Hellfire Dame,” He greeted De Chantal, at least Mal assumed. It fit and she was honestly a little disappointed not to have coined the title for the other girl; but apparently De Chantal didn’t agree. 

“Shut your cursed mouth, Saldot! When we’re not in the middle of a crisis, I’m going to gut you like one of the day old fish Harriet was trying to sell me,” She snapped in irritation. He hair was up in a braided crown, but the escaping whisps fell into her face and she blew them up. “Harriett and the pirates are doing the best they can to slow Maleficent down, but Harriet can’t risk the integrity of the ship much longer. What’s the plan?”

“We need to get a magical sword. Prince Philiip, what happened to your sword, the one you used last time?” Ben asked. Mal actually liked that plan better, because she only knew of one way into Evie’s kingdom. And Evie had just had horns grow out of her head, Mal would not send her friend underground if at all avoidable. 

“Vanished, I’m afraid,” Prince Philip answered, having returned with Li Shang after evacuating the building of everyone other than the Isle Kids, Ben, Chad, Aladdin, Mulan and the High King. “My mother-in-law might be able to tell you more, but after the last of Briar’s guardian’s vanished, so did the sword.”

“Princess Evie,” Ben began, using Evie’s title for what Mal thinks is the first time out loud. “Hades said that such a magic sword could be found in your kingdom?”

Evie bit her lip, in concentration. Then she turned to Carlos who shook his head.

“I don’t know of any magic sword in my kingdom, King Ben. Er, you are a king now right?” She asked awkwardly. Mal realized that Evie’s concern was correct. 

“I’ll acknowledge it,” King Adam said. “We’ll have a proper ceremony later, son, for now this is your kingdom.”

“I’ve no idea if there’s a magic sword in Evie’s kingdom, but there is one right next to it. Carlos remember that story I tell on cold nights?” De Chantal said. Carlos blinked. 

“You’re talking about Caliburn?” Carlos asked. “If it’s even real, then I guess that would do it. But is it real?”

“We live in a world of magic, science, and faith, and you’ve decided that this story can't be real?” De Chantal scoffed. Mal rolled her eyes and held up a hand to stop the inevitable quarrel. 

“Princess Evie of Annivun, I, King Ben formally request safe passage through your kingdom to find the sword, Caliburn, in order to save my kingdom from the Fey, Maleficent,” Ben said in a clear powerful voice. 

“I accept your request and shall guide you through the passage through the embassy tunnels,” Evie answered just as solemnly. Then she dropped her tone, “You owe me for this, Ben, you have no idea what I’m giving up.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben was having what was possibly the second worst day of his life and he wasn’t sure what it said about him, that having his coronation blown up, being attacked by the King of the Underworld, and having an evil faerie attack his kingdom only ranked as the second worst day in his life. His father hadn’t wanted to let him go on this quest, or maybe he’d wanted to come. But with Aladdin and Aziz representing Agrabah’s royal family, Ambassador Li Shang from China, and Prince Philip representing his own country and Majorca, the High King had been put forcibly under protection and taken to a safe house. Ben was grateful and just a little put out that they’d left Chad with him though. Because he had to keep Chad from getting killed by the very intimidating persons of JR and De Chantal when they found out what he’d tried to do to Evie. 

The Isle Kids had split into two groups: one to stay with Mal and fight, one to go with Ben and stay in Annivun. Basically, Ben got Evie, Doug, JR, De Chantal and all the littles, while Mal got everyone who could fight. Surprisingly enough that included Harry Hook. 

“Right then, so I’m going to all of you repeat after me,” The Pirate Prince had said from his seat on the floor. “I do believe in fairies, I do, I do.”

Within three minutes of the whole group chanting, Harry Hook was floating, and glittering. And Ben wasn’t sure if he was really human anymore, but he was certainly fighting fit and ready to kill something. The mirror had just depicted CJ getting thrown into the sea; they hadn’t seen her come back up. 

“AAAAHHH,” Evie screamed. Chad jumped, but thankfully didn’t do anything stupid. 

“What’s wrong?” Ben asked.

“Evie your hands,” Doug gasped. Ben held the torch up higher so that he could see. Evie’s fingers, which Ben recalled had been perfectly manicured before they’d entered the tunnels, were nothing but bone. 

“We have to hurry,” She said. “The curse will progress the longer I’m down here.”

“Princess Evie,” Chad, much to Ben’s horror started to speak, “I owe you an apology for my behavior. And I thank you for what you are sacrificing.”

Ben just stared at his oldest friend for a moment, though he didn’t stop walking. He remembered a time when that had been Chad, all the time. Back when Chad’s mother was there and Ben’s father made time to play with them as they pretended to be knights. Back before Audrey and all the terrible things that had happened since they’d started to grow up. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Welcome to Annivun,” Evie said weakly, her hands bunched up in her sleeves. De Chantal and JR pulled out a map of the country and quickly decided the best route to the Church where De Chantal said the sword was kept. Thankfully, Ben was able to convince Evie to head with the littles to the palace, while Chad and De Chantal accompanied him the rest of the way. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Ben nearly growled in frustration, staring at what he hoped wasn’t the sword they were here. There sticking out of a giant boulder was the hilt of a sword. 

“Well, go get it,” De Chantal waved him over to the boulder as if there was any possible way for Ben to get the sword. He looked at Chad who shrugged, clueless and unhelpful. Ben sighed and walked up to the boulder and braced himself against it, hoping the extra force would help and grabbed the sword. 

As soon as he touched the handle the world swirled in a vibrant stream of colors, then Ben found he was in some kind of hall. He looked around and saw their were people dressed for high court a long time ago seated in high back chairs, but he couldn’t make out their faces. Then one by one they came into focus. Chad was seated on the left side of the hall, between Carlos and Aziz. On Aziz’s right sat Jay. On the other side of the hall, sat Lonnie, Evie, and another girl Ben didn’t recognize. At the very front of the Hall there was Mal, in a gorgeous blue dress with green hair adorned with a crown of black roses. Next to her sat an empty chair. 

“If you are ready, High King of Avalon, come and take your throne,” Mal, no Queen Melantha said waving Ben forward. 

“I’m not ready,” Ben said. And Queen Melantha arched her eyebrow at him. 

“No one who is worthy of being High King has ever thought they were ready,” She said. Ben took a breath and released all his fear and sadness and took his throne. 

Once again the world swirled then righted itself and Ben found himself back in the church, sitting on the throne set up for his coronation, Chad standing next to him and everything else on fire. Blue and green fire to be exact.

Aziz and Jay were pressed back to back fighting what appeared to be some sort of plant based monster off to Ben’s right. Carlos and Dude were near them along with the girl from the mirror Mal had called Uma fighting the monsters as well. A swarm of other pirates led by Harriet Hook were engaged in fighting what appeared to a group of faeries, who all looked moments from death. Harry was flying around the Dragon Maleficent and generally being a nuisance while Mal fire spell after spell from her position behind one of the pillars. 

“I’ll cover you,” Chad said as Ben leapt from his throne and together the dove into the fray. Chad acting as Ben’s shield as Ben worked through the throngs of conjured monsters and an angry escaped Island Fey. Of which Ben realized there were way more than there were supposed to be on the Isle and all of these faeries seemed to be adults. 

Finally Ben and Chad managed to get through to Maleficent. Ben felt that this was a big moment and if this were a movie or an epic, he’d stop and give a speech about how this evil was going to be vanquished. Ben, however, decided that surprise was the better part of valor when it came to fighting something that could breath fire and hadn’t realized you were there and stabbed the dragon. 

Maleficent screamed and acid poured from the wound sending Ben and Chad scrambling backwards to avoid getting doused. 

“Are you happy now, Mal?” Maleficent roared as she appeared to melt from the wound. “Are you happy that you’ve killed your mother?”

“No Mom,” Mal had come over from the pillar and Ben realized she was practically leaning on him for support. “I’m not.”

With that Maleficent was gone, nothing but a pool of flaming acid. Without her magic the plant monsters sort of came apart at the seams and the other faeries took off, Harry chasing after them, but only to the horizon before he returned. The battle was over and Ben pulled Mal into hug. Much to his surprise she returned the hug even as the other Isle kids gather around them. 

“Um, Ben?” Carlos asked. “So I’m guessing De Chantal didn’t tell you what’s so special about the sword.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What the hell do you mean I’m now High King of Avalon and supposedly the Uniter of the World?” Ben exploded and Mal felt a smile threatening to break out onto her face. 

They were not safe, but they were not fighting for their lives at the moment. It was several hours after Ben had defeated Maleficent, but Mal was dutifully ignoring the pain she felt regarding her mother’s death. She and Ben were in Ben’s office on a video call with Evie, Doug and De Chantal, to compare notes about what happened after Ben and Evie separated in Annivun. 

“I don’t make the rules. You asked for a powerful magic sword and I provided you a way to get a powerful magic sword. Everything else is up to you,” De Chantal said with a straight face, that Mal recognized from the Isle as De Chantal silently laughing. 

“We’ll let you get back to clean up,” Evie said. “Unless there’s anything you need right now, I’ve got a country in more than a little disrepair to fix and I have a meeting with a talking pig in an hour.”

Mal shook her head and ended the call. Ben collapsed into his chair and buried his face in his hands. 

“You always knew you were going to be High King, right?” Mal asked, unsure of why Ben was upset by this. 

“Yes, but that was supposed to be years away when Dad got too old to manage everything. I’ve got no experience running a kingdom, let alone two kingdoms and the possibility of more,” Ben said not moving. 

“You’ll figure it,” Mal said confidently. “And I’ll be happy to help you.”

Ben stood up and walked back to Mal and looked deep into her eyes with such emotion that Mal couldn’t understand. Then he pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. 

“We’ll do it together then, Melantha” Ben said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for enjoying this story, I've had a blast writing it. 
> 
> The sword in the stone is called Caliburn, not Excalibur which is a sword given to King Arthur by the Lady of the Lake. Caliburn is what judged an orphan called Wart as the Once and Future King, King Arthur. Ben got a little view of his future round table, here.
> 
> I have one more Broken System story outlined, (Ben and Mal are still not dating and I want to see that particular plot through, plus we've got a redemption and a fall arc started here) and hopefully I'll have the first chapter up by next week. Also if you guys are interested in reading some of the outtakes or would like to see my (bad) fanart of the characters in the story check out my Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/ivycrown


	21. Sequel Teaser

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, so previously when I posted a sequel it took a while for people to find out about it, so here's the announcement.
> 
> Rebuilding from a Broken System is up. And because I'm here to Live Evil enjoy the teaser.

Mal struggled to walk forward, each step heavier than the last. She passed Doug’s charred body next to Evie’s skeletal form. She moved past Carlos’s body clutching Dude, clearly having bled out. Then she was at the base of the sanctuary steps. 

At the top, was Maleficent, holding Ben’s head by his hair. She smiled at Mal, opened her mouth and blew green flames.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't Tempt me, I can resist anything except temptation. Which is why I'm going ahead and writing this story. So its not a simple re-write because I'm adding so many new elements and introducing new characters from the disney cannon.  
Also I'm trying something with chapter one and I'll let you know if it happens in future chapters. All the spoke text and the final interlude into Mal's thoughts can be read as song lyrics to the tune of Carrying the Banner from Disney's Newsies


End file.
